Camping With Death
by Courageous
Summary: When the gang decides to go on a camping trip to the island in the middle of Domino lake, they never could have foreseen what would happen... YuugixYami & eventual JouxSeto. Rating might go up.
1. Chapter 1: Beginnings

**Chapter One; beginnings**

The sun was shining brightly in to the classroom raising the temperature to something unbearable. Somewhere in the room someone let out a stifled yawn. It was the last period and everyone had lost their interest in whatever the teacher was saying.

Jounouchi let out a sigh while his eyes wandered over to his watch for the hundredth time that day. He was waiting for that welcoming sound of the bell.

It was Friday, and the blond couldn't wait for the weekend to come, especially because they would go for a camping trip. Jounouchi had always loved to be surrounded by trees, it would give him a peaceful feeling, particularly because he never had any peaceful moments at home. Not with his father's alcohol problem. The blond could hardly remember the last time he had been sober.

"Thank freaking God," he exclaimed when the bell finally rang. "That last period took forever."

"I know what you mean, I almost fell asleep out of boredom," his best friend, Honda, said.

"But now it's weekend," Joey said excited.

"And you know what that means!" his friend continued.

"We're going camping!" The two boys cried out.

"Can you just be quiet for two minutes?" Anzu said as she joined the two boys.

"We're just excited, Anzu," Jou said, sporting his typical grin.

"Yeah, Anzu," Yuugi said as he and Yami joined them, "it's going to be great."

"I don't understand the appeal of camping," Yami groaned, "it's going to be cold at night, and there won't be any indoor plumbing."

"You've become really spoiled, do you know that?" Yuugi laughed, poking his boyfriend's side.

"It'll be great," Jou said, "it's just us and the trees, and maybe we'll have an adventure!"

"We've had enough adventures, Jou," Honda mumbled.

"So the geek squad is going camping huh?" a familiar voice said.

"Shut it, Kaiba," Jounouchi growled, turning around.

"Oh, the dog can bark," Kaiba smirked.

Jounouchi held up his fists.

"Come on Jou," Yuugi said.

"Yeah, don't pay attention to that jerk," Anzu piped in.

"Whatever," Kaiba said, "see you geeks later."

As Kaiba left the classroom, Jou couldn't help but stare after him. His perfect hips swayed as he walked out. He sighed, why did he have to crush on such an impossible person?

Jounouchi turned back to his friends with a wide grin, he wouldn't let Kaiba spoil his day.

"Okay guys, so tomorrow morning we're meeting at the game shop," Anzu said, "then from there we'll take the bus to the edge of the city, and then walk to Domino lake, where we'll row to the island in the center, and that will be our camping spot!"

The boys around her nodded excitedly, this was weekend was gonna be great.

As Jounouchi walked home after class, he couldn't help but think of Kaiba. He seemed to be doing that a lot lately. The way his perfect hair formed around his perfect face. And those beautiful eyes he could just get lost in.

_Stop that,_ he thought, _you're not allowed to like Kaiba! He's the enemy. THE ENEMY._

Jou sighed, he couldn't help himself though, as much as he hated to admit it, he liked Kaiba, even though he knew they could never be together. He looked up at the sky, the sun was still shining brightly, he wished he was already on the camping trip with his friends, at least then he could get away from all this inner turmoil.

After twenty-five minutes of walking the blond reached his home, or the rundown apartment he called his home. He walked up the stairs, greeted the elderly woman who lived below him and finally reached his own door.

He put the key in the lock and opened the door slightly, the smell of alcohol rushing towards him. His father had been drinking again. If he was lucky he'd be passed out on the couch, and Jounouchi could run to his own bedroom without the old man noticing he ever got home.

He peeked inside the apartment, and as he had hoped his father was passed out… on the floor. Jounouchi considered waking up the man, he'd get sick if he slept on the cold floor like this. But he knew the foul mood his father would be in if he was woken up from his slumber. So Jou tip-toed to his room and quietly closed the door behind him.

"Phew, now that that's over with I can finally start packing," he grinned as he pulled out an travel pack from under his bed. What shall I take with me… Let's see…"

He opened the zipper and looked around his room, which was quite a mess, and started picking out all the things he'd need for the camping trip.

That night, Jounouchi could hardly sleep of excitement. He couldn't wait to go camping with all his best friends. He just knew this would be the best trip ever.

Or so he thought…

**A/N:** Hi guize. I hope you liked the first chapter. The story's gonna start off a bit slow, but I promise you, it's gonna be great… I hope. ;-;

ANYWAY, I hope you enjoyed it. :3 Don't be a stranger and review! Reviews make me smile. ;3


	2. Chapter 2: Departure and arrival

**Chapter two; departure and arrival**

That morning when Jounouchi woke up the sun was already shining through his window. He yawned and stretched, and then it hit him, today was the day they'd leave on their camping trip. Very much excited the blond jumped out of his bed and got dressed, he looked at his clock, they were meeting at the game shop around 8 AM, right now it was 7 o' clock. He was going to be right on time.

He opened his bedroom door silently, to see if his dad was still passed out on the floor, he was relieved to see him nowhere in sight. Jounouchi closed the door behind him and made his way to the kitchen. A simple omelet and then he'd be off to the game shop.

After breakfast, and still no sign of his father, Jounouchi put on his jacket and put on his backpack. He was about to leave the apartment when he heard a drunken stumble come out of his dad's room.

"Oh God," Jou mumbled as he saw the door opening.

Out of the door hung the still dressed, still very much drunk father of Jou.

"Where do ya think you're goin'?" he slurred.

"Dad, I explained," Jou said, "I'm going camping with my friends.

"Like hell you are," his dad said, making his way over to his son.

"Sorry dad," Jou said, "I'm going."

"And I'm telling ya not to," he was now standing in front of Jou, he smelled of sweat and booze.

"I'm going," Jounouchi said once again. His dad tried to punch him, but his reflexes weren't that amazing in his drunken, half asleep state. Jou could easily dodge the blow, and deliver one himself right in his old man's stomach. The man let out a scream of pain and clutched his stomach. Jou took this opportunity to bail and ran out of the apartment, slamming the door behind him. As he walked out in the street he could still hear his father shout.

Jou looked up at the already blue sky. He would not let this ruin his day. He breathed in and smiled, his father would have forgotten all of this when he got back home anyway. Humming a song he once heard he walked down the street towards the game shop. No, this would not ruin his mood.

When he finally arrived at the game shop, he realized he was the last one there.

"Oh there he is, finally," Honda yelled as he saw his friend approaching.

"Hey!" Jou grinned, "I'm on time."

"You are Jou," Yuugi said, being his own cheery self.

"Now that we're all here, we can leave," Anzu said, looking around.

"First we need to make a trip to the grocery store though," Yuugi said, "Unless you want to starve to death."

The gang walked to the nearest grocery store, they agreed only the most vital things were necessary, as they'd have to go a long way, and carrying a load of things wasn't an option. They did their shopping and divided the groceries among the five of them. When they walked out of the store they saw a huge black limo parked in front of it.

"There's only one person that rides around in that car," Jou muttered under his breath. And right he was as Kaiba slammed open the car door and stepped out in a most elegant manner.

"Well, look who it is," Kaiba smirked, "the happy little campers."

"Leave us alone Kaiba," Jou snapped.

"Whatever, mutt," Kaiba said as he walked towards the entrance, "You guys aren't worth my time."

"Don't you have servants to do your shopping for you, rich boy?" Jou asked.

"I don't like to be dependant of those people," Kaiba said, "I'm perfectly capable of doing my grocery shopping myself." And with that he disappeared into the store.

"Whatever," Jou mumbled.

"Come on guys," Anzu said, "the bus is leaving in fifteen minutes."

Jou was still staring at the doors of the store, but he decided that not even Kaiba's insults were going to ruin his mood.

The bus ride took longer than Jounouchi liked, he hated the bus. It was too stuffy, too dirty, and he always sat next to the strangest people. Since Yuugi and Yami were an item, they almost always sat next to each other, Honda was sitting next to Anzu, leaving Jou to sit with the strange guy who smelled of weed and was constantly looking around with shifty eyes. When they finally arrived at lake Domino they were the only five left in the bus.

"Last stop, lake Domino," the bus driver said, and they all got out. Jou yawned and stretched his arms, the ride there had made him sleepy.

"We reserved a boat ride to the center of the lake at 10 AM," Anzu said checking her watch, "It's now 9:30 so we still have some time."

Jou looked around, there wasn't a lot of people at the lake. Normally on a day like this, it'd be packed.

"Strange," he thought out loud.

"What is, Jou?" Honda asked.

"Aren't there more people here, normally?" he asked. Honda looked around.

"You're right," he replied, "Looks like we're the only ones here."

"Isn't that weird?" Jounouchi asked, "It's a beautiful day, normally there would be thousands of people."

"Don't be paranoid Jou," Honda said, putting his arm around Jou's shoulders, "This is a good thing, now we get to enjoy some quiet time on the island, instead of being surrounded by screaming kids."

"I guess," Jou said, but still he didn't feel comfortable.

"Let's go look for that boat," Yuugi said.

There was only one pier so finding the boat wouldn't be a difficult job. In the water they saw a small boat, and standing in it was the man they assumed to be their 'captain'.

"Are you Mr. Ikeda?" Anzu said, approaching the man.

"That I am, little missy," he replied.

"We seemed to have arrived a little early, and we're wondering if you could already get us to the island?" she asked.

"No problem," the man replied, "All aboard!"

The gang got in the boat, which smelled a lot like dead fish, and the man started the boat. They were happy they didn't have to row or anything.

As the boat slowly made its way to the island, their 'captain' starting humming a song. Jou had to try his best no to laugh, as the man reminded him a lot of the sea captain from The Simpsons.

"Argh, matey," he whispered in Honda's ear, and the two boys started snickering, earning disapproving glares of Anzu.

Yami was staring at the water, and was getting paler by the second.

"What's the matter?" Yuugi asked him.

"I feel like I'm going to throw up," Yami said, "maybe we should turn back."

"Oh, you're just seasick, you'll get better once we get to the island."

"I disapprove of boats, Yuugi," Yami frowned, trying his best not to vomit.

"You'll be fine," Yuugi smiled at his lover reassuringly.

"If you say so," Yami said, having a distinct green glow on his face.

After spending, what seemed to Jou, hours in the little boat, and Yami throwing up several times, they finally reached the island. Yami jumped out of the boat instantly and lay down on the sandy shore muttering something along the lines of "Never again".

"I'll pick you up Monday morning at 10Am," Mr. Ikeda said.

"Okay!" Anzu said cheerfully, "see you Monday!" She was the only one to wave off the man when he left.

"You guys are so rude," Anzu said, turning to Jou and Honda, "that man was nice enough to bring us all the way to this island."

"Yeah," Honda said, "he was also a total freak, right Jou?"

But Jou didn't reply. He was too busy looking at the forest. For some reason he felt uncomfortable.

"Jou!" Honda shouted.

"Huh? Yeah of course," was all Jou could say.

"Are you okay?" Yuugi said, looking at his best friend.

"Do you guys suddenly feel cold?" Jounouchi asked.

"Cold?" Honda asked, "Are you kidding? It's a million degrees."

"It's still morning Jou," Yuugi said reassuringly, "It'll get warmer."

"I guess…" was all Jou said, still staring at the trees.

When they could finally convince Yami to move, they started looking for a camping spot in the forest.

"I wonder if there are any wild animals here," Honda wondered out loud.

"Oh please," Yuugi said, "all the wild animals that are here are dear."

"Maybe there are wolves here," Honda said looking around.

"Yeah," Jou said, teasing his friend, "and they're gonna eat you!"

"Don't even kid about that Jou!" Honda said, "I'm not gonna be able to sleep one bit if I think there are wolves around.

"You were the one starting it, Jeez," Jou said.

They were walking around in the woods for quite some time, when they finally reached an open spot.

"This is perfect!" Yuugi shouted excitedly."

"Okay," Anzu said, ready to hand out orders, "I'll stay here with Yuugi and set up camp, and you guys," she pointed at Jou, Honda and Yami, "will go out and find some firewood."

As Jou roamed the forest looking for dry sticks and leaves he couldn't help but feel uncomfortable again. Almost as if someone was looking at him. He decided to hurry up and get back to camp as soon as possible. Suddenly he felt a light tap on his right shoulder, he turned around instantly, but was greeted by nothing.

"Is someone there?" Jou asked, but he saw or heard no one.

Jou shrugged, probably something that fell out of the trees. He made his way back to camp, but felt eyes burning on his back. He decided it was just his mind playing tricks on him, but he couldn't shake that uncomfortable feeling.

He was the first one to get back to camp, Anzu and Yuugi were still putting up the tents. He dumped the dry leaves and sticks he gathered on the ground and helped his friends. He wanted to tell them about the strange feeling he has, but decided against it, he wouldn't let anything ruin this trip.

When Yami and Honda returned and the tents were set up, it was already noon and time for lunch. Anzu had prepared a bento for everyone of them. As they were munching on food and contemplating about what they would do this day, Jou felt better and decided that he was definitely just acting paranoid.

The gang spent the rest of the day on the beach of the island, the weather was magnificent and the water was just right. Once the sun was setting they decided to get back to their camping place. But when they got back they were shocked by what they saw.

The camp was covered in clothes, Jou's clothes.

"Who did this?" Jou asked as he got together all his belongings.

"I don't know…" was all Yuugi could utter.

Jou stuffed all his clothes back in his backpack, most of them were dirty. When he was checking if everything was there, he realized he was missing something.

"My wallet's gone," Jou said.

"Oh no…" Anzu said, looking around camp.

"Maybe it's still here," Honda said, searching around.

"It was in the front pocket of my backpack, if it's not there, it's gone," Jou was starting to get annoyed.

"Maybe the wolves-" Honda started.

"Don't be ridiculous, Honda," Jou snapped, "this was done by people, we're not alone on this island guys."

"No…" Yami said, "while I was out in the woods earlier, I had the feeling someone was spying on me."

"Me too…" Honda said.

"I suggest we don't leave the camp unless we really have to," Yuugi said, "if we do any activities we do them here, and otherwise we take all our stuff with us."

"Was there a lot of money in your wallet, Jou?" Anzu said.

Jou shook his head, "No, just some spare change, in case we'd need to buy something."

Jou looked around at the tall, looming trees as the paranoid feeling snuck on him once more.

"Well there's nothing we can do now," Anzu said, "Mr. Ikeda will return Monday, there's no way off this island until then."

"All we can do is act like this didn't happen," Yuugi said, "but keep your eyes open for anything weird."

Dinner was surprisingly quiet that evening, and everyone went to bed early. Yami slept with Yuugi, while Anzu slept with Jou and Honda. Normally she had a tent for just her, but she was too scared to sleep alone.

It took a while until Jou found rest and fell asleep. If he had stayed awake a bit longer he might've heard the footsteps going around his tent, that night.

**A/N: **Hope you guys had fun reading this! It's a lot longer than the first chapter, but I expect chapters to grow more as the story progresses.

I like how whenever I typed 'Anzu' Word wanted to change it to 'Nazi'. She so is a Nazi, a friendship Nazi. D; haha.

I also thank my two reviewers. :3 you definitely made me smile.

Review guys! It'll make me want to write more. 3

Hope you all have a nice day. : D


	3. Chapter 3: Accidents

**Chapter three: accidents**

When Anzu, Jounouchi and Honda crawled out of their tent the next morning, they were bummed to see a grey sky, it looked as if it was about to rain and the wind was viciously cold.

"Oh great," Honda said as he looked at the sky above, "I thought you said the weather would be great this weekend." He turned around facing Anzu.

"I can't control the weather, Honda," Anzu said defensively.

"Guys, stop blaming each other," Jou said sitting down on the grass. He felt tired; his night had been filled with strange dreams. At one point he had woken up and could've sworn he heard footsteps, but after five minutes of listening and holding his breath he decided he was just hearing things.

Honda sat down next to him.

"How are you doing, Jou?" he asked.

"I'm fine," was all Jounouchi said, he didn't really feel up to the heart-to-heart emotional chat.

Honda just gave him an encouraging pat on the shoulder and looked at Yami and Yuugi's tent.

"Hey lovebirds," he shouted, "It's time to wake up."

All they heard was a few groans and something that sounded like "five more minutes, grandpa".

"What do you think we should do today, Anzu?" Jou asked his friend.

"I don't know, we'll discuss that over breakfast. All we can do now is just hope it won't rain," she looked at the sky with a worried look in her eyes, "why don't you guys try to start a fire?" she asked the boys.

"Sure," Jou said as he threw some fresh branches on the ashes of last night's fire. "Do you have the matches?" he asked Honda.

Honda checked his pockets and threw his book of matches at Jounouchi, who then tried to light the fire, which was nearly impossible 'cause of the wind. When Jou was finally able to get a fire going both Yuugi and Yami stumbled out of their tents.

"Good morning!" Yuugi said cheerfully, his smile soon faded as he noticed how crappy the weather was.

"Holy Ra," Yami exclaimed, "it's freezing out here."

"I just started a fire," Jounouchi said, warming his hands, "Just come sit here."

Yami did as he was told and sat down, Yuugi sat down next to him and Yami wrapped his arm around his lover. Anzu had gone back inside her tent and fetched blankets for all of them. Soon they were all feeling a bit warmer, but the mood hadn't improved in the slightest.

For breakfast they had some cereal and milk, it wasn't exactly luxurious but no one really cared. Jounouchi didn't feel like talking, and eating was a great excuse to keep his mouth shut.

"I have an idea," Yami said yawning, "how about we just sleep for a couple more hours and hope the weather improves?"

"Maybe we should just call Mr. Ikeda," Yuugi said, "yesterday didn't exactly end fantastic, and I had the worst night ever."

"I would," Anzu said, taking her cell phone out of her pocket, "but I don't have a signal on this damned island."

"Come on guys," Jounouchi said, actually feeling a bit disappointed about his friends' attitude, "Yesterday was great, except for my stolen wallet and I'm sure today could be great too, it was just a mistake to assume no one else would be on this island."

"Yeah!" Honda piped up, "Let's just try to make the best of our situation, it's not raining yet, isn't it? How about we just put on an extra sweater and play something silly, like Hide and Seek?"

"What if it does start raining?" Yami asked.

"We'll hang out in the biggest tent and play Duel Monsters or something," Jou suggested. When both Yami and Yuugi heard the words 'Duel Monsters' they got more excited about the idea.

"Sure," they both said, simultaneously.

Now the only one they had to convince was Anzu, they all looked at their female companion who was still trying to get a signal on her phone. She looked at her friends and sighed: "I guess playing Hide and Seek could be fun."

"Great!" Jou said, his mood improving, "just make sure you guys take all your valuables before we leave camp."

When they were finally leaving, Jounouchi glanced back at the camp one last time, if he had looked close enough he might have noticed the silhouette standing behind a large tree.

"Okay," Anzu said, gathering all her friends around her, "I suggest we play Hide and Seek… So who wants to be the seeker first?"

She looked around at her friends, none of them responding.

"I'll go first," Yuugi said cheerfully, "I'm counting till a hundred, and then I expect you all to be gone."

The boy turned around and covered his eyes with his hands and started counting.

"Ninety-seven, ninety-eight, ninety-nine, one hundred!" he uncovered his eyes and was surprised to see Yami standing right in front of him.

"Uhm, Yami," Yuugi said, "the point of the game is to hide."

"I'm aware of this," Yami said, smirking.

"Then why-"Yuugi couldn't finish his sentence as Yami's lips crashed on his.

When they were finished kissing Yuugi looked at his lover.

"I just want some time with you," Yami said, pushing Yuugi against a tree. Yuugi's face was completely red.

"Well…" he started.

"I won't accept a no," Yami said, kissing Yuugi once again.

Meanwhile everyone had find their own hiding spot; Honda was up in a tree, Anzu had found her spot behind a tree and Jounouchi had gone to the rockier part of the island, and hid at the edge of a cliff behind a bush.

"Oh, he'll never find me here," Jounouchi grinned, trying not to look behind him. The cliff was steep, and though it wasn't such a long way down you could still pretty much die if you did fell. As minutes passed Jounouchi got more certain he would be the winner of this game, but after a while the blond started getting hungry, and his situation more and more desperate, he wasn't going to get found.

"Fuck," Jounouchi said out loud, now he'd had to go find his friends. As the blond looked around he realized one thing, he didn't know the way back to camp. Jounouchi felt like crying when his stomach started to growl.

"This is just great," he whispered.

"It is, isn't it?" he heard someone say.

Jounouchi looked around startled, trying to make out where the voice was coming from.

"Show yourself!" he yelled. A man stepped out from behind a tree.

"Don't be scared…" the man said. He looked about twenty years old, he had long black hair but it was messy and greasy, he also seemed to be wearing a white pajama. The thing Jounouchi noticed most about him was the wild look he had in his eyes. He looked like the kind of man who was able to hurt someone without caring.

"Look dude, I don't know who you are," Jounouchi started but he was quickly cut off by the man.

"My name is Katsuya," the man said.

Jounouchi eyes widened, what did he just say?

"Yeah… Jounouchi Katsuya," the man continued on saying.

"Okay, I'm leaving now," Jounouchi said, slowly going the other direction.

"Don't leave," the man said panicking, "you can't leave!"

"Look nutcase, I'm going," Jounouchi said.

The man looked for a second as if he was going to back up, but then that wild look appeared once again in his eyes, and he started walking towards Jounouchi.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Jou threatened, but though he was putting on a tough exterior, he was starting to get scared.

"But I need you," the man said.

"You don't even know me!" Jounouchi yelled.

"We're the same…" the man continued, "I need you."

While he was saying this he kept on taking small steps forward.

"I'm warning you!" Jounouchi tried once more, but then the man flung himself at Jounouchi, and the blond did the only thing he could do. He hit the man, right in his face. The man shrieked and grabbed his nose; Jou could see a couple of tears escaping the man's closed eyes. He staggered backwards, and backwards.

"Wait!" Jou yelled, but it was too late and he fell, right off the cliff. The last thing Jounouchi saw was the scared look in the man's eyes.

The boy went over to the edge and looked down. The man was lying on the ground, not moving at all.

"Don't move!" Jou shouted, not even sure if the man was alive or not.

Behind him he heard familiar voices; the boy turned around and faced his friends.

"Are you okay Jou?" Yuugi asked, "We heard you shouting…"

"We couldn't find you!" Anzu said.

"I think I killed a man…" Jou said slowly.

"What?" his friends said at the same time, and they all gazed over the edge as well. The man was still lying there, dead silent.

"We need to get down there," Honda said, "Come on."

After what seemed like hours they finally made their way down. Yami was the first to reach the man; he grabbed his wrist and felt for a pulse. Around him everyone held their breath.

"I don't feel anything…" Yami said dropping the arm.

Jounouchi thought he was going to be sick.

"I killed a man," he silently said.

"Come on Jou," Yuugi said, "it wasn't your fault; you said he tried to attack you."

"I don't know!" Jounouchi yelled, "He came closer but…"

"We have to tell the police," Honda said.

"We have to wait till tomorrow morning," Anzu said.

Jounouchi could feel tears welling up in his eyes; he was a murderer, he was even worse than his father. He felt an arm on his shoulder and looked around, it was Honda.

"I know this is hard," he said, "but don't blame yourself man."

"Honda, I killed a man," Jou yelled, "Don't tell me shit like that!"

"What's this?" Yuugi wondered out loud, grabbing an item that was lying next to the man. "Is that…"

"It's my wallet!" Jounouchi said, taking the thing out of Yuugi's hand. Everything was still in there; all his money, his ID…

_That must've been how he knew my name_, Jounouchi thought, _why did he say it was his own though?_

"He's the one that stole your stuff?" Anzu said, "He was obviously mentally ill, look he's even wearing clothes from a psychiatric hospital or something. Jounouchi, this wasn't your fault…"

"Let's just go back to camp," Yami said, "we can't do anything now."

They slowly started making their way back; Yami wrapped his arm around Yuugi, holding him close to him. Honda and Anzu walked together in silence, and Jou just hung at the back, trying his best not to cry.

When they finally got back to camp the sun was already setting. They made dinner but no one felt like eating. Without saying more than they had to everyone went to bed. This time Anzu did sleep in her own tent.

When Jou was finally laying in his tent it all seemed like a dream.

"Look man…" Honda whispered.

"Leave me be, Honda," Jou replied, "I don't want to talk now."

Without saying anything else, Honda turned around and let his best friend be.

The night passed slowly and Jounouchi couldn't sleep, all he saw when he closed his eyes was the man tumbled over the edge… That look of despair in his eyes.

That morning Jou was the first one up. He didn't really know why but he needed to see the man again. But nothing could have prepared him for what he would see when he reached the cliff.

Jounouchi didn't hear Honda sneaking up on him.

"Are you okay bud?" Honda asked, "I noticed you left, and I figured you would be here."

"Honda," Jou said, "he's gone."

"What?" Honda asked, not understanding, and he stood next to Jounouchi, peering over the edge.

"He's gone…"

**A/N: **I have a feeling this completely sucks. : D Yay!

Soyeah! I know one of you had a feeling who was on the island, sorry to disappoint you; it's an OC. ;-; I first wanted someone of the Yu-Gi-Oh show to be on there, but I realized it wouldn't really make sense in this story. So I invented an OC; nutcase. : D

I know it seems a bit "I know what you did last summer" like; But this won't be anything like that movie. I promise.

Hope you guys enjoyed it (even though I'm not rly a fan of this chapter).

Thanks to my reviewers! You guys are awesome. :3

Remember to review guys! 3


	4. Chapter 4: An unexpected welcome

**Chapter four: an unexpected welcome**

As he peered over the edge of the cliff Jounouchi tried to wrap his mind around the entire situation. It would appear the man had disappeared from, what they thought, was his dying place.

"I don't understand," Jounouchi said.

"Seems he wasn't dead," Honda replied. He made it sound so dreadfully simple; it wasn't.

"He fell right down, Honda," Jou's voice grew louder with every word he said, "I saw him tumble over the edge, no man could have survived that fall."

Honda tried to reply, but he was quickly shut up by Jounouchi.

"Yami said he was dead too, he couldn't feel a pulse!"

"I know bu-"

"He clearly wasn't breathing when we saw him!" Jou was yelling now, "He's supposed to be dead, dead people don't just stand up and walk away!"

"Jou please calm down," Honda pleaded.

"No, I can't," Jounouchi was crying now, "I thought I killed him Honda I-"

"I know, Jou," Honda tried to comfort his friend.

"No!" Jounouchi yelled, "You don't know. I thought I was a murderer, Honda."

For the longest while the only sounds that were heard was the rustling of leaves and Jou's sobbing. Honda wasn't sure what to do. Obviously talking to his friend wasn't going to help. Should he hug him? Jounouchi never was the touchy-feely person. Honda decided standing still and letting his friend work out all of his emotions would be the best option.

Jou sat down and swung his legs over the edge, his eyes never leaving the spot where the man was supposed to be lying. Honda sat down next to him.

"Shouldn't you be relieved?" Honda asked.

"Relieved?" Jounouchi repeated.

"Well yeah, the guy isn't dead," Honda said, "it was getting dark when we reached him, so maybe that's why we didn't see him breathe. And maybe Yami was wrong about the pulse. The dude was probably just unconscious, he woke up some time during the night and walked away."

"So where is he now, Honda?" Jounouchi looked directly into Honda's brown eyes.

"How am I supposed to know?" Honda said, "I'm just trying to make sense of the whole situation."

"I know," Jounouchi said, "And I'm sorry, this whole thing has been a nightmare. You're probably right, the guy was just unconscious."

"Let's go back," Honda said smiling, "the others are probably wondering where we are."

The way back to camp was spent in silence. only the chirping of the birds was heard. Jou wasn't sure how to feel. Should he be relieved as Honda as said? Then why did he feel like this wasn't over yet?

Everyone was still asleep when they reached camp. They both sat down by the burnt out fire, though it was a bit chilly they weren't cold. There was movement after a while. Anzu was the first to get out of her tent.

"You're already up?" she asked.

"Yeah, couldn't sleep," Jounouchi replied.

"I don't blame you," she said.

While Anzu was getting dressed in her tent, Yuugi and Yami exited theirs.

"Hey guys," Yuugi greeted them, not exactly cheerfully. Yami didn't say anything, he just sat down on the ground.

"You guys hungry?" Honda asked, getting out the cereal and milk.

"Not really…" Anzu said, sitting down next to them.

"We've got something to tell you," Honda said.

"You all are probably relieved to know," Jou started, "that I'm not a murderer."

"Oh Jounouchi," Yuugi said, "We don't consider you a murder."

Then it hit him what Jounouchi had said.

"Wait, so the guy is still alive?"

"Well…" Honda said, "we assume he is, but we have no clue where he is."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Yami asked.

"I went back to the cliff this morning," Jou started, "and when I got there, he was gone."

"How can he be gone?" Anzu asked.

"We don't know," Honda said.

"Wait," Yami started, "I checked his pulse. That guy was definitely dead."

"Well, you were probably wrong, Yami," Jou said carefully.

"Dead people don't just stand up and walk away, right?" Honda said, rephrasing what Jounouchi had said earlier.

Yami just shook his head and looked at the ashes. Yuugi placed a hand reassuringly on his shoulder.

"Shouldn't we try to find the guy?" Anzu asked, "if he's not dead then he's probably injured somewhere. And he has no way off this island."

"That's probably the responsible thing to do," Yuugi said, "we should try calling out to him. Did he tell you his name, Jou?"

_Jounouchi Katsuya._

"No," Jou said halfhearted, "he didn't."

"Okay guys, let's split up," Anzu said, "we'll meet back here at 9 AM. Then we have to go back to the shore."

So they all went their own way, trying to find the injured man.

"He didn't have a pulse, Yuugi," Yami whispered to his lover while everyone was leaving, "I'm sure of it."

"Let it be, Yami," was all Yuugi said.

"I'm sure of it," Yami murmured.

Though they didn't have much time they searched almost the entire island, but to no avail. When they gathered back at camp they all had the same disappointed news, the man was nowhere to be found. They all packed their bags and left the open space. The camping trip they all had looked so forward to, had slowly turned into a nightmare.

"We should call the police once we get back to the shore," Yuugi said.

"And tell them what?" Jounouchi snapped, "I punched a man, he fell off the cliff, we thought he was dead, but now he's mysteriously disappeared?"

"There's no need to get angry, Jou," Yami said.

"I know, I just…" Jounouchi sighed, "I'm just tired."

The trip back to Domino city took forever and when they were finally stood in the police office Jounouchi had gone over his story a million times in his head.

"So you he attacked you, and you punched him?" The officer said.

"That's right," was all Jounouchi said.

"And he tumbled over the edge and was dead, or that's what you thought?" he continued.

"Yup," Jou said.

"And then the next morning he was gone?" The officer didn't seem to believe them.

"Look, I know it all sounds pretty improbable, but-"

"You're damn right it sounds improbable, are you making fun of us?" The officer didn't sound too happy.

"It really happened, officer!" Anzu said.

When looking at all their faces the officer softened up.

"Alright," he said, "I'll send some men to search the island, we'll call you once something comes up."

"Thank you!" Yuugi said politely.

"I can't believe that guy!" Jounouchi yelled once they were out in the street again.

"Well it does seem a little hard to believe," Honda said.

"We should return home," Yuugi said, "Grandpa's expecting us."

"I have to go as well," Anzu said.

They all said their goodbyes; Yami left with Yuugi, Anzu went on her own and Honda walked together with Jounouchi. This didn't last for long, Honda lived in the more respectable neighborhood of the town. So once they got to his house, Jounouchi was on his own again. He didn't exactly mind, he still had to process everything that had happened on the camping trip.

"Well, look who it is," a familiar voice said, "a stray dog."

"Back off Kaiba," Jounouchi said without turning around, "I'm not in the mood for your games."

"I didn't know dogs could play games," Kaiba said innocently.

"Dick," Jounouchi muttered.

"What did you say?" he sounded angry.

"Nothing," Jounouchi said sweetly.

Kaiba grabbed his shoulder and turned Jounouchi toward him.

"You say that again, Jounouchi," Kaiba threatened.

"I didn't say anything," Jou pushed Kaiba's hand away, breaking away from his grip, "what are you doing here anyway?"

"I work here," Kaiba snarled.

Jounouchi now just realized he was standing outside of the Kaiba Corp building. He couldn't believe he had been so engrossed in his own thoughts he didn't know where he was.

"Right, forget I asked," Jounouchi said, turning around again, "now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go home."

"You mean that dump you live in?" Kaiba smirked.

"I can't believe I like you," Jounouchi muttered.

"What did you say?" Kaiba asked, he sounded shocked.

_Oh God, _Jounouchi thought, _did he hear me?_

"Nothing that concerns you, Kaiba," Jounouchi tried his best not to blush, but he couldn't help it.

"No, no," Kaiba said, "I think I clearly heard you say you like me."

"Why would I like you?" Jounouchi asked, trying to sound as innocent as he could, "No one likes you."

For a moment a hurt look passed through Kaiba's cerulean eyes, but then it was gone again, and all that was left was cold indifference. The brunet just turned around and walked towards his building with a steady pace. Jounouchi looked at Kaiba as he disappeared inside the building. He felt bad for Kaiba, maybe his words had been a bit too harsh. But Jounouchi pushed away those thoughts, it's not as if Kaiba had ever been nice to him. He just hoped Kaiba wouldn't ever bring up this awkward encounter again. Deep inside his mind Jounouchi couldn't help but wonder why Kaiba had looked so hurt when he said no one liked him. It wasn't as if Kaiba aspired to be a popular person. Maybe it was because he had said he didn't like Kaiba. But he knew that was just silly, so he kept that thought pushed back against the corners of his mind.

_How could someone as perfect as Kaiba like someone as imperfect as me_, the thought alone made Jounouchi laugh. _But it's always nice to wonder._

Jounouchi was in a slightly better mood once he reached his apartment. Though the camping trip had turned into a nightmare that was all it was; a nightmare. And nightmares aren't real. Jounouchi climbed the stairs; his home was on the second floor. Normally he always encountered someone inside the building, but this time no one was there. Jounouchi started feeling weird again, the exact same feeling he had when they first reached the island; as if something was seriously wrong. He started going up the stairs faster and faster, and was almost out of breath when he finally came to his apartment's door. He slipped the key inside the lock and pushed open the door, only to be greeted by an empty apartment.

"You're acting silly," Jounouchi said to himself. He placed his keys on top of the counter.

"Dad?"

There was no reply. Jounouchi started feeling worried again.

"He's probably at a pub somewhere, no need to worry," he said aloud, just to calm himself down. He pushed open his bedroom door and set down his travel pack. Normally Jounouchi wouldn't care if his father wasn't at home, if anything it would be better if he wasn't. But he couldn't shake that feeling he had. The feeling he wasn't alone.

He slowly walked back into the living room and stared at his father's bedroom door. If his dad was asleep in there he would be in a sour mood if Jounouchi entered, and if he wasn't Jou would feel incredibly ridiculous for worrying so much.

He slowly walked towards the door and placed his hand on the doorknob, turning it slightly. He swung open the door and regretted it immediately. His dad was in his room alright, just not in the way Jounouchi had expected. Blood splatters covered the wall, on the bed laid his father. Jounouchi covered his mouth and tried his best not to vomit when he saw what had happened to his father. Intestines were sprawled on the floor and his dad was missing all his limbs. But the most terrifying thing was the look in his eyes. A look of pure terror.

Jounouchi turned around and ran towards the phone. He grabbed the phone and feverishly started dialing the police.

"Hello Katsuya."

Jounouchi's eyes widened as he slowly turned around and gazed right into those crazy eyes.

"It's so nice to see you again."

Everything started to blur and Jounouchi could feel himself losing control of his body. In the distance he could hear his phone asking what the emergency was. And looking down on him was the man he thought he had murdered.

**A/N:** This practically wrote itself. I'm quite satisfied with the ending. : D

I'm not sure if I should up the rating. Maybe this last chapter was a bit too… Gross. D: what do you guys think?

A big thanks to my lovely reviewers! They always make me happy. :3

I hope you all have a nice day. :3

Remember to review, guys!


	5. Chapter 5: Interrogation

**Chapter five: Interrogation**

Jounouchi slowly opened his eyes. At first the room was a blurry white. He had no idea where he was. Then slowly it dawned on him that he was in a hospital room. Though there was another bed in the room, he was all alone in the room. There were two chairs, one on the side of his bed, and one on the side of the other. Other than that there was a closet, a sink with some soap and a door that, Jounouchi assumed, led to the bathroom. The room was a pale white and had that distinct hospital smell. Jounouchi slowly sat up; squinting his eyes against the sun that was shining through the window. He felt like someone had repeatedly hit him with a hammer.

For a moment he didn't know why he was in the hospital, then what had happened before came back to him. His father lying dead in his own blood. He may have been a violent drunk, but a death like that… no he wouldn't wish something like that to happen to his worst enemy. Jounouchi needed to talk to the police, though he wasn't sure what to tell them.

"I went on a camping trip and killed some guy, though obviously he's still alive as he's killed my dad," Jou said out loud, "yeah, I don't sound crazy at all…"

Jounouchi swung his legs over the bedside and put his feet on the floor. It was freezing cold, and Jounouchi became aware of the fact he was no longer wearing his regular clothes. Instead he was wearing a silly hospital gown. He stood rather unsteadily on his feet, he still felt weak from passing out. As he walked towards the closet he wondered how long he had been out cold. He opened the closet doors, and sure enough; there were his clothes. Glad to be wearing pants again he sat on the chair next to his bed. He stared out of the window and looked down (his room must've been on the second floor or something) at the passing cars and people. In his mind he kept replaying what had happened. Jounouchi felt genuinely scared, and that was something he didn't feel often. It all seemed so absurd to him, so unreal…

As Jou was lost in his own thoughts he hadn't heard someone entering the room.

"Mister Jounouchi?" a faint voice called out to him. Jou turned around quickly and saw a woman standing in the doorway, "I am doctor Sasaki, I understand you must be confused, but you shouldn't be out of bed…"

"Look lady," he said standing up, he felt slightly angered, he should be anywhere but in bed, "you don't understand-"

Before he finished his sentence two other men appeared behind her. One of them had blond hair and a sharp face, he wore a gray suit and a hat, the other one was way taller and had short black hair, he wore a black suit. They both looked very stern.

"Can you please leave us, doctor?" the tall one said.

She just nodded and left the room.

"Are you Jounouchi Katsuya?" the tall one said.

"Yeah," Jounouchi said, "what's it to you?"

The blond one smiled and unpleasant smile and replied: "I'm Detective Tanaka and this is Detective Kimura" he pointed at the tall man besides him. "We're both detectives from the homicide department, we wish to ask you a few questions concerning your father's murder."

"Good, you're just the guys I'm looking for," Jou said.

"We understand you had been camping with your friends before the incident" Kimura said, his brown eyes boring right into Jounouchi's amber ones.

"We'd like to know exactly at what time you came back home on Monday," Tanaka said.

Jounouchi thought for a while. When exactly had they left the island? Everything seemed like a blur.

"I guess I came home 'round noon," he said.

"Around noon, huh?" Tanaka said smugly, "your father's death happened somewhere around 12.30"

"I don't know, I could've been home later. I don't always check the time, you know," then he realized what the detective really meant and Jou's eyes widened, "Wait... You think I killed him?" The idea seemed almost preposterous to him. Sure, he had wished his father dead, but he would never do it himself. Especially not in that manner.

"And why not?" Kimura said, "we have heard from several people he drunk and wasn't above punching his children, sounds like anyone would want a way out of that."

"I didn't kill him," Jounouchi yelled, "I would never…"

"Then who would?" Tanaka asked, "We know he had a gambling problem, did he have a debt somewhere?"

"Well yeah, but they didn't kill him either!" Jounouchi felt ridiculous, how was he ever going to explain everything to them.

"Then who did?" Kimura asked.

"Look, while I was on the island something happened…" Jounouchi said.

"Oh yes, we had heard about this back at the police station," Tanaka said mockingly, "you pushed someone off of a cliff and that person just got up and left, right?"

Jounouchi sat back down on the chair, it sounded even more ridiculous when someone else said it.

"I saw him," Jounouchi said softly.

"What was that?" Kimura asked.

"I SAW HIM!" Jounouchi yelled, "he was at the apartment he… he has killed my dad."

"Who was?" Tanaka asked, a smug smile on his face.

"The man from the island," Jounouchi stared at the floor, they wouldn't believe him.

"Right," Tanaka said slowly, "and what's his name?"

"I don't know, he-" Jounouchi didn't finish that sentence.

"He what?" Tanaka inquired.

"When I first saw him, he introduced himself using my name," Jounouchi said looking up again, "he had stolen my wallet from our camping spot and my I.D. was in there…"

"And why did he do that?" Kimura said, slowly walking towards Jounouchi.

"How am I supposed to know?" Jounouchi yelled, he was starting to lose his temper. Why did they not understand?

"Oh now, Mister Jounouchi," Tanaka said holding his hands up, "there's no need to get angry."

"Look I didn't kill my father," Jounouchi said looking straight into Tanaka's cold blue eyes, "You may not believe me, but I would never do something like that to anyone. I wouldn't tear someone's limbs off and rip out there insides. Especially not my dad's. Yeah we had our problems, yeah I sometimes hated him. He wasn't perfect but he was still my dad."

Tanaka let his arms fall and nodded, and for the first time Jounouchi saw something that looked like understanding in his eyes.

"Alright," was all he said. He looked at his partner and nodded, then left the room.

"We're done asking questions now, if you have anything more to add you can always call this number." Kimura handed a card to Jounouchi, "I suggest you find another place to stay as your home is now a crime scene, you are allowed to pick up a few personal belongings though? We thank you for your time." Kimura also left the room.

Though Jounouchi still felt like they didn't believe his version of the murder, he did feel like he had convinced them he wasn't the killer. And that was at least something.

After a few standard tests Jounouchi was finally free to leave the hospital. It was around noon when he finally stepped outside in the sunshine. He wondered where to go. Yuugi and the gang was probably at school and he was allowed to go back home. He could just go to the game shop, but he didn't feel like having a forced conversation with Yuugi grandpa. He must know what had happened. No, he didn't really feel like confronting anyone like now. At one point he'll have to put foot in his apartment again, but he sure as hell didn't feel like doing that right now. In the end he decided to just walk around the city.

Overhead Jou saw grey clouds gathering, it wouldn't be long until it started raining. He only walking for about fifteen minutes raindrops started falling. Not wanting to get soaking wet he decided to enter the nearest coffeehouse. He ordered a hot coffee and sat down in one of the comfy chairs and looked out the window. Watching the rain fall seemed to relax him.

"I didn't expect you to be here," a voice said.

Jounouchi turned around and saw Kaiba standing there, with a cup of himself.

"I just run into you everywhere, don't I?" Jou said.

Kaiba sat down in one of the chairs next to him and quietly drank his coffee. Jounouchi just looked at him, this wasn't typical Kaiba behavior.

"Stop staring at me," Kaiba said coldly.

Jounouchi started blushing and looked away.

"I wasn't…" he muttered silently.

"Right," Kaiba said, a smirk appearing, "I remember what you said yesterday, you said you liked me."

"I never said-" he fell silent. Yesterday felt like a century ago.

"Why are you here?" Kaiba suddenly asked.

"I have nowhere to go, besides it's none of your business," Jou snapped.

"No need to get angry," Kaiba said sipping his coffee. He was being unusually nice.

"So, why are you here? Shouldn't you be at school?" Jou asked.

"I took today to work at my company," Kaiba replied, "I come here sometimes to drink some decent coffee. Office stuff is never great."

"Oh," was all Jou replied, and he sipped his coffee. Awkward wasn't strong enough to describe the conversation. Jounouchi just couldn't figure out why Kaiba was being so un-Kaiba like.

"Well the coffee is indeed great," Jounouchi said sporting a goofy grin, he tried to break the uncomfortable silence but to no avail.

Kaiba just grunted and continued to drink.

Though awkward, it felt nice to have someone he knew sitting next to him, even if it was Kaiba. He felt less lost, less alone.

So the two boys just continued to drink their coffee in silence. Soon enough the rain ended.

Kaiba suddenly got up.

"Where are you going?" Jou blurted out.

"Some of us have work to do," the other just replied.

Jounouchi felt silly and muttered: "Yes of course."

Kaiba went to the counter to pay for his coffee, Jou just followed him, he didn't really have a reason to stay anymore.

"That's two dollars and fifty cents," the girl behind the counter said.

Jounouchi put his hand in his back pocket, but his wallet wasn't there.

"Shit," Jounouchi said, "it must still be at home."

"It's fine," Kaiba said, and he paid the girl, then without saying anything he just went outside.

Jounouchi followed, slightly embarrassed.

"Look Kaiba," Jounouchi asked once outside.

The brunet turned around and looked at him.

"Not meaning to be disrespectful or anything," he stammered, "but… why are you being so nice? Normally… well you're a dick."

Kaiba smirked but then his face turned serious. Jounouchi tried to read which emotion was going on inside the brunet's eyes. But they were indecipherable.

"Because," Kaiba started, "I know what it's like to lose a parent."

And with those words he left. Jounouchi just kept looking at him walking down the street. Unable to say anything.

Jounouchi decided to go back to his apartment. He might as well get it over with. Walking there his mind began to wander towards the awkward encounter with Kaiba. They drank coffee together, and Kaiba paid for it.

_Kinda like a date,_ Jounouchi thought, and he caught himself smiling.

Though he knew it was nothing like a date, he liked thinking about him. He hoped that when they maybe someday did go on a date, it would be less awkward.

_Yeah right,_ he thought, _me and Kaiba on a date, that'd be rich._

His mind kept filling with silly thoughts like that, and before he knew it he was back at his apartment. There were a few police cars parked in the street. He ascended the stairs and once again no one came towards him. The people in his building probably didn't feel like crossing a policeman.

He reached his door, it stood open and the doorway was blocked with yellow police tape. Unsure what to do Jounouchi just yelled out. After a while a familiar face appeared; Tanaka.

"Well if it isn't mister Jounouchi," he said, it sounded far from friendly.

"Your partner said I could come pick up my stuff," Jou just said.

"That's right, come in," Tanaka lifted the yellow tape, "don't take too long and don't go in your father's room."

Jounouchi stepped inside the apartment, Tanaka was the only person there.

"Why are you here?" Jou asked.

"Just checking if there isn't something we missed," Tanaka looked grave, "whoever killed your father didn't leave a smidgeon of evidence."

"So you're no longer suspecting me?" Jounouchi said hopeful.

"Oh you're not off the list yet, kid," Tanaka said, "now get your stuff and get out of here."

Jounouchi entered his bedroom and started packing his bag, he didn't really know what to think of Tanaka. One moment he's an asshole, then all of the sudden he's sort of… Jounouchi wouldn't call it friendly, but he was less of an asshole.

Coming back to the apartment felt like returning back to a nightmare, he felt like he was still being watched by the crazy eyes, though Tanaka being in the other room made him feel a little bit safer. Jounouchi didn't have that many possessions so his bag was quickly made, he grabbed some money from his secret cache and was on his way again.

"Don't skip town now," Tanaka said behind him as he left the apartment.

"Yeah sure, ass," Jounouchi muttered.

When Jounouchi stood outside he wasn't sure where exactly to go. The most obvious place would be the game shop, and though he was sure they would welcome him with open arms he didn't want to go Sugoroku another mouth to feed. He wasn't sure he could support three teenagers. He could always go to Honda, but his parents didn't like Jounouchi that much. They considered him a bad influence on their son, though Honda and Jou weren't in a street gang anymore, Jounouchi still felt like his parents held him responsible for their rather dark past. He would go to Anzu but he didn't really know her parents, and he wasn't sure they'd be comfortable with a boy staying over. Jounouchi sighed and looked at the sky, the sun was shining again. He'd figure things out, somehow… he hoped.

**A.N.:** SORRY IT'S BEEN SO LONG. I had exams and stuff, gleh, I hope I passed them. D; ANYWAY, I hope you guys like this chapter, I had huuuuge writers block, I wasn't sure how to handle the detective stuff. ;-;

Thanks to you who reviewed! :3

I hope you guys liked the chapter. :3

Remember to review~!


	6. Chapter 6: Revelations

**Chapter six: revelations**

Tanaka Akio had always loved his job. He loved locking up smug criminals. He loved going to sleep knowing he had made the world a safer place for his wife and two kids. He was the best in his department; though he wasn't exactly liked. His blue, hawk-like eyes could see through any façade. He could see who was lying in only an instant. This made his colleagues very uncomfortable; they felt he could see into their souls. Tanaka always kept his distance with everyone, and hardly got friendly. Only his partner Kimura had someone pierced Tanaka's hard exterior, he was his only friend. It wasn't only during interrogations Tanaka's eyes were useful, on the crime scene he was always the one who noticed the small things no one else did. This is why he was thoroughly pissed off when he didn't find anything on the Jounouchi crime scene.

He had searched the room where Jounouchi Hiroshi (*) had died over and over again, but besides blood-splatters he had found nothing that could give any clue as to who had killed him. He was surprised someone could murder a man this gruesome and not leave behind any evidence. Tanaka knew he was the best, and it was because he wished to uphold this reputation, he started looking elsewhere.

He started with the kitchen; he dusted for fingerprints, used a special light to see stains, moved the table and chairs and scoured the floor to find something, anything that could point his way to the killer. He did the same thing in the bathroom and the living room, yet didn't find anything out of the ordinary. After spending an entire hour turning the apartment upside down, he now stood in front of the door of the only room he hadn't searched yet; Jounouchi Katsuya's room. Tanaka pushed open the door and stepped inside, he was sure he wouldn't find anything out of the ordinary in this room too. He was wrong.

Tanaka sat down his bag of equipment and took one good look at the room. It was a typical boy's room, there was a desk, but every inch was covered with paper, books and other things. There were a few dirty clothes laying on the floor, the chair and the unmade bed. Tanaka sighed: "What a dump."

He reached for his bag and got out the special UV light, but then his hawk-like eyes noticed something. Halfway under the bed there lay a travel pack. Tanaka walked over to it and pulled it out from under the bed. In the middle of the pack there were two large white handprints. Tanaka touched the handprints lightly with his gloved hands. The handprints were flakey, almost like skin.

"What the hell," muttered Tanaka.

From out of his bag he got a tiny evidence bag and started putting the evidence in there. If Tanaka hadn't been so busy with the strange handprints on the bag he would've noticed he wasn't alone.

In the corner of the room stood the man, his wild eyes were wide and a grin was plastered on his pale face. Slowly the man inched forward, his hands stretched out towards an unsuspecting Tanaka. His grin grew bigger and bigger and his rotting teeth were revealed. Silently his feet carried him closer to Tanaka. He was so close, so close…

A ringtone broke the silence in Jounouchi's room. Tanaka reached in his pocket and held his cell phone to his ear.

"Detective Tanaka," he greeted the man on the phone, "Ah, Kimura, have you reached the island yet?"

"We're waiting for the boat right now," Kimura said on the other end, "are you sure we should be going there?"

"I'm sure," was all Tanaka said.

"But-"

"Look, Kimura, something happened on that island, and I need to know what."

"How do you know that kid was even telling the truth?" Kimura asked.

"I just do," Tanaka replied, "I saw it in his eyes."

"Well, I'll just take your word for it then," Kimura said, "How are things going back at the apartment?"

"I think I found something in that kid's room," Tanaka said, "there were strange handprints on his travel pack. It's this strange dust. I don't know, it's really weird. I'm just going to take it to the lab. I'll see you later."

Tanaka hung up his phone and put it back in his pocket. The evidence bag went in the bag of equipment. Tanaka turned around and was greeted by an empty room. He looked at the UV light that was still on the floor.

"Well I've already found one thing," he said, "maybe there's more."

He turned on the light and almost instantly his eyes widened with surprise and fear. Every inch of the room was covered with handprints.

Jounouchi Katsuya had almost reached the game shop; he had been a bit slower 'cause of the bag he was wearing. Though he didn't own a lot the bag was still pretty heavy. He looked at his watch and saw it was almost 4 PM, normally Yuugi should be home now. He had been lucky; it hadn't rained during his walk there. He would've been in an even worse mood if he had gotten soaking wet. During his walk he had come to the realization he hadn't shed a single tear over his father's dead. He wasn't sure if that made him a lousy son, or his father a lousy dad. In any case he did feel bad; surely everyone deserved some sympathy when they died? Yet he couldn't muster any tears. Jounouchi set down his bag for a second and sat down on a nearby bench, he needed to rest for a while. Though it wasn't raining he could see grey clouds looming overhead. He sighed and buried his face in his hands. He was at a loss right now.

"Jou?" he heard a familiar voice say.

He lifted his head and saw his best friends gathered around him.

_Guess they weren't home yet,_ Jounouchi thought.

"Hey guys!" Jounouchi said, trying his best to be cheerful, "I was just on my way to your place, Yuugi."

"What a coincidence, so are we," Yami said dryly.

"We'd best hurry," Anzu said, "It's about to rain I think."

Jounouchi got up and grabbed his bag again. And they continued to walk to the game shop.

"So how was school?" Jounouchi asked, hoping this would keep them away from the subject of his father's death.

"Oh you know," Honda replied, "boring."

"I wrote down notes for you in class," Yuugi said, being his helpful self.

"Thanks," was all Jounouchi said.

For the remainder of their walk it was Anzu who kept talking about her day at school. Though Jounouchi'd rather not talk about his father's death, he was surprised and a little hurt by how little his friends asked about it. Maybe they weren't sure how to handle it.

They entered the game shop and as usual Sugoroku was sitting behind the counter.

"Good day everyone," he greeted them politely, "how was school?"

Anzu once again started rambling about school.

Jounouchi zoned out while she was talking, he looked around the game shop and finally he saw Sugoroku's eyes, they were full of pity. Jounouchi looked away. He didn't like being pitied.

After Anzu had finished talking about her room the gang moved upstairs to Yuugi's room. Jounouchi put his bag on the floor and took his regular place on the bed, while Honda sat on his desk chair, the rest just sat on the floor, Yuugi in Yami's arms.

Jounouchi laid his head on the pillow and stared at the ceiling. The atmosphere in the room felt awkward, and he knew that they wished to talk about what had happened. The silence was heavy and not about to be broken. He knew that they were all looking at each other, sending each other meaningful looks. Jounouchi kept his eyes fixed on the ceiling, though.

"So," Yuugi cleared his throat, "Jounouchi…" He wasn't sure how to exactly finish his sentence.

"How are you holding up?" his boyfriend finished for him.

"Oh, you know," Jounouchi started, "I think I'm handling things pretty good. Most people would probably break down after thinking they've killed a man, saw their dad dead in a puddle of his own blood, and got thrown out of their home without anywhere to go. Though, I am going pretty much insane, I guess."

None of his friends knew what to reply to that, until Honda asked: "Insane?"

"Yeah, remember that man I supposedly killed?" Jounouchi asked, he really didn't expect an answer, "Well, I think he's responsible for my old man's death."

His friends were dead silent. Jounouchi's eyes were still fixed on the ceiling.

"You're probably wondering 'Gee, has Jou really lost his mind?' But no, I saw him, in my apartment," his volume was slowly rising. Though he didn't mean to make a scene like this, he needed to spill out all his fears to the few people he actually trusted. No one replied.

"You probably think I'm insane," Jounouchi laughed for a while, "Well I think so too."

"Jou-"Yuugi tried.

"No, don't even talk," Jounouchi now sat up straight on his bed, "it seems so implausible, but who else would've kill my dad?"

"He wasn't exactly loved," Honda said.

"No, but I don't think anyone would rip off his limbs," Jounouchi stated dryly.

Anzu gasped and covered her mouth with her hand. The concept of limbs being torn off was a bit too gruesome for her to hear.

"So you think it was the man from the island?" Yami asked.

Jounouchi turned towards his friend and sighed.

"I know it sounds ridiculous guys," he said, "but I saw him with my own eyes."

He looked at his friends, waiting for any reaction. Most of them weren't sure what to say. Anzu still covered her mouth.

"I believe you," Yuugi said resolute. Jounouchi looked at his best friend and smiled.

"I knew you would, Yuugi," he said

"I believe you too," both Honda and Yami said.

Anzu just nodded in a determined fashion.

"Thanks guys, I knew I could count on you," and Jounouchi was glad he had these amazing friends.

"So what can we do?" Yuugi asked.

"We have to find out who he is," Jounouchi said.

"But… how?" Anzu said quietly.

Jounouchi sighed and fell back on the pillow then whispered: "I don't know."

"Aren't the police handling this business?" Yami asked.

"Well yeah," Jounouchi replied.

"So let them struggle with it for a while," Yami said, "for now we should concentrate on the important things. What was that about not having a home?"

Jounouchi should've known it would eventually lead to this conversation.

"Well since my apartment is a crime scene, I can't exactly stay there," he said.

"You can stay here!" Yuugi piped in.

"Thanks Yuugi, but I think I'll solve this one on my own," Jounouchi said, "I know you mean well, but I really don't want to bother you guys."

"But Jou…" Yuugi said silently.

"There are enough shelters in town, I'll find a place to stay there," he said.

"You can always stay with us," Honda said.

"Or at my place!" Anzu chipped in.

"Your parents hate me, Honda," Jounouchi said, "and your parents are overprotective, Anzu."

Everyone slumped, though they really wanted to help Jounouchi, it was useless. They felt that for whatever reason, he didn't want them to help. There was nothing they could do.

"Hey guys don't give me those faces," Jou said, sporting his trademark grin, "I'll figure something out, no worries."

He gave them a thumbs up and returned his gaze to the ceiling. If only he was really that confident about the situation.

He had eaten dinner there that night, Yuugi felt that was the least they could do. Before it was dark, he was once again on his way; he still had a lot to do. Yuugi had looked up some shelters that were relatively close to school, there was only one. So now Jounouchi was on his way there.

He stared up at the sky, the sun was already setting. It would be dark soon, and for a reason Jounouchi'd rather not think about, that really scared him. Jounouchi couldn't stop thinking about the man with the eyes. Involuntarily he kept seeing flashes of him at his apartment, standing over him. Eyes wide. He continuously felt those eyes burning in the back of his head, like he was being watched. He turned around, preparing himself to stare right into them, but was only greeted by an empty street.

"You're being ridiculous Katsuya," he said, trying to calm himself down, "there's no one there."

Though the street he was in was normally a busy one, there was no one about. The deserted street didn't help his paranoid feeling and he caught himself turning around once more. Nothing there.

"Don't be stupid," he said once again.

A few cars passed him, their headlights shining brightly. The sun was now completely set, and Jounouchi felt terribly alone in the dark street. He looked at the skyline and could see Kaiba Corp. sticking out amongst all the buildings. That made him smile a little.

_I wonder what Kaiba's doing right now,_ he thought.

As he was thinking about that certain brunet he felt his anxiety slowly passing.

_Guess Kaiba's good for something,_ Jounouchi thought.

The shelter wasn't that far from Kaiba Corp. the map Yuugi had printed out wasn't a good one, and though Jounouchi had lived all his life in Domino city, he got lost in the dark alleyways. And once again his paranoia returned. He felt the eyes on him now, stronger than ever. He was here, in this alleyway, Jounouchi just knew it. Without thinking twice the blond started to run, it didn't matter where he just needed to get out of there. Whilst running he lost his map, Jounouchi didn't care though, he kept on running. He could feel breathing on his neck and knew that if he stopped now it would be too late. He ran faster and faster, and felt his lungs would explode out of his chest. He felt like he had been running through the tiny streets of Domino city forever, but there seemed to be no way out of the maze.

_I'm going to die, _Jounouchi thought, and tears started stinging in his eyes.

And then, as a gift from God, he got out of the tangle of alleyways, back on the main street. He ran across the street, still trying to escape his doom, and got hit by a car, a limo to be exact.

He fell on the hard ground, scraping his face, hands and knees.

"Are you insane!" he heard the driver of the limo yell.

Jounouchi sat up straight, and looked at the alley he just came out of. There was no one there. The blond breathed and had never felt so relieved.

"What's going on?" he heard someone else yell. He heard a car door slam.

Jounouchi looked around to see who had hit him, but the headlights were burning in his eyes, and all he could see were shadows. A hand grabbed his and got him back on his feet. His head was a bit woozy and sure enough he almost fell again. But the hands held him straight on his feet.

"Jounouchi?" the voice asked, "Oh good, you hit a dog."

There was only one person who would ever make a joke like that, and he had never been so happy in his entire life to see said person.

"Kaiba," Jounouchi said. He started crying, he felt so relieved he couldn't help it.

"Jounouchi, what's wrong? Why are you crying?" was that worry he heard in his voice?

"Long story, I was looking and, then I felt something and, I just, I was so sure…" it was so difficult to form the sentences. All he wanted was to just hug Kaiba. He was sure the brunet would get in his limo and hit him himself though.

"Calm down," Kaiba said, "Do you need to sit down again?"

Jounouchi just shook his head, still feeling too relieved and too emotional to properly reply.

"Gather his clothes in his bag," Kaiba barked at his driver. While Jounouchi had gotten hit his bag had fallen, all his clothes were sprawled out on the street. The driver immediately did as his employer commanded.

"How are you feeling?" Kaiba asked, there no longer was that worried tone in his voice.

"I'm fine," Jounouchi said looking at his hands, "they're just scratches."

"Where were you going?" Kaiba asked.

"The shelter," Jounouchi replied.

"I'll take you there," he said, "get in the car."

"You can't do that," someone said.

Jounouchi looked at the limo and saw another familiar person standing there, Kaiba Mokuba.

"Come on, big bro," he said, "you just hit him; you can't take him to some shelter."

"To the hospital, then," Kaiba said.

"But I'm not really injured," Jounouchi protested, he really didn't feel like being in the hospital again.

"So he comes home with us," Mokuba said matter-of-factly.

"Mokuba!" His big brother said.

"You just hit him, Seto," Mokuba said, "and look at him! He's clearly been through hell. We can't just leave him on his own. He's coming with us."

Kaiba looked at Jounouchi. Jounouchi just smiled at him sheepishly. The brunet threw up his hands in the air and growled.

"Fine!" he said, "but only for one night."

"For one night," Mokuba repeated, a wide grin on his face.

And so Jounouchi was pushed into the limo and on his way to Kaiba mansion.

**A/N:** FINISHED IT! Hahaha. I'm pretty pleased with it. : D

Thanks to everyone who reviewed! I really appreciate it. :3

(*) I called Jounouchi's father Hiroshi, I wasn't exactly sure whether he HAS a name, so I just called him like that. D: If any one of you know what he's really called, please tell me, then I can change it. :3

Thanks for reading!

And remember to review guys, it really motivates me.


	7. Chapter 7: A new home

**Chapter seven: a new home**

The first thought that entered Jounouchi's mind when they arrived at the mansion was one along the lines of 'holy crap, that is one big house'. They stood still in front of a large, iron gate. The driver reached for the glove compartment and took out a tiny remote, he aimed it at the gate and pushed a button, immediately the gate opened and they drove up to the mansion.

The limo stopped in front of the door and the three of them got out. The driver drove away, probably to go park. Jounouchi stood still for a while and admired the mansion, whereas Kaiba pushed open the large wooden door and disappeared inside. Mokuba just looked at Jounouchi, a large grin spread out on his face.

"So, what do you think?" Mokuba asked, the grin didn't disappear.

"It's amazing," Jou said.

"Wait! I'll show you the rest!" Mokuba said excited, and he grabbed Jou's hand. Jou winced from the pain and pulled his hand back.

"Oh, right," Mokuba said, realizing Jounouchi's hands and legs were scraped from the accident.

"Come inside," Mokuba said, "I'll have someone take a look at those scrapes."

Jounouchi once again forgot about his injuries when he stepped inside of the mansion – it was beautiful. They were in some kind of welcome hall, everything looked so expensive. There were paintings covering the walls, a dark red carpet on the floor and in a corner stood a statue of a Blue Eyes White Dragon. Right in front of him was a large staircase leading to the second floor. Jounouchi felt incredibly out of place just standing there.

"Once you're done admiring, we should really take a look at your wounds," Mokuba said in a playful manner.

"Of course," Jounouchi said a slight blush covering his cheeks, "It's just, I've never been in a mansion before. It's just so… big."

Mokuba laughed and said: "Well it used to belong to our adoptive father. Seto always said Gozaburo built the mansion this big 'because otherwise his ego wouldn't fit in here

_Yeah, like Kaiba doesn't have a huge ego,_ Jounouchi thought and snorted.

"Ayami!" Mokuba suddenly shouted, startling Jounouchi a bit. Who knew so much sound could come out of such a little boy. There was no reply, so Mokuba decided to shout again. This time even harder.

"AYAMI!" it sounded throughout the entire mansion. Jounouchi had covered his ears this time. There was a reply this time, but it didn't come from someone called Ayami.

"She's already gone home," Kaiba said, he stood on top of the staircase, "also, you shouldn't yell like that Mokuba, it isn't polite."

"Yeah because you never yell at people," Mokuba smirked at his older brother.

"I'm allowed to yell, I pay these people," Kaiba said, "Why are you yelling for Ayami, though?"

Mokuba pointed at Jounouchi and said: "He's hurt pretty badly because you ran him over, Seto, someone needs to look at his injuries."

Kaiba came down the stairs. He took Jounouchi's hands in his and looked at the scrapes.

"They're not really injuries though," Jounouchi muttered, his cheeks turning slightly red, "it's not a big deal."

Kaiba looked up, piercing Jounouchi's eyes with his cerulean ones.

"Those scrapes still need to be disinfected, though," he said.

Right after Kaiba had said that his driver entered the mansion.

"I put the limo in the garage with the other cars," the driver said. Kaiba let go of Jounouchi's hands and took the keys out of the driver's hands.

"Thank you, Genta," Kaiba said, "you're free to go home now."

"You're welcome," Genta said, "I'll see you tomorrow mister Kaiba."

"See you Genta!" Mokuba said cheerfully.

"See you," the driver said smiling.

"Sir," Genta nodded at Jounouchi, "I'm really sorry for hitting you, by the way," he added.

"Oh, it's fine," Jounouchi said holding up his hands, "I'm fine."

Genta nodded again, then turned around and left.

"You should take a bath," Kaiba said suddenly, breaking the silence.

"I… What?" Jounouchi asked lightly embarrassed.

"You look like you've been to hell and back," Kaiba explained, "I'll take a look at those scraped after you've gotten cleaned up."

"Oh… Thanks," Jounouchi said, at a loss for words.

_Why is Kaiba being so nice?_ He wondered.

"Besides, you smell like a dog," Kaiba added with a smirk.

Jounouchi wanted to yell kinds of things at the older Kaiba brother, but clenched his mouth shut instead. Kaiba had taken him into his home, there was a saying that went 'don't bite the hand that feeds you' and Jounouchi didn't want to end up on the streets again 'cause of his big mouth. He swallowed and nodded at Kaiba, holding his bag closer to him.

"I'll show you to your room!" Mokuba said, and ran up the stairs, "come on!"

Jounouchi followed him up the giant, marble staircase.

The room was just as big and beautiful as the rest of the house. Jounouchi smiled wryly, he had never stayed in a room as luxurious as this one. He knew he shouldn't get comfortable though, he had to leave again tomorrow.

"Do you like it?" Mokuba asked.

Jounouchi threw his bag on the ground and sat down on the bed, the silk sheets felt cool against his hands. He stroked them and looked around the room. Then replied: "too bad I can't stay longer." It had meant to sound as a joke.

"Don't worry Jou," Mokuba smiled and winked, "I'll convince Seto to let you stay longer."

"Why are you doing this for me though?" Jounouchi asked, "I mean, we're friends… But we're not exactly super close."

"I know what it's like to lose a parent, Jou," Mokuba said, a sad look in his eyes, "and in times like this, you need people around to support you."

Mokuba nodded and grinned at Jou, and then he left the room, no doubt looking to convince his brother.

Jounouchi lied down on the bed and stared at the ceiling, he seemed to be doing that a lot lately. Thoughts started turning around in his head. He had though he'd end up in a youth shelter, where he knew no one. Instead he was now sleeping in a mansion, owned by Kaiba Seto. He didn't even want to think about the trouble he would've been in if he hadn't been hit by Kaiba's car. If Kaiba hadn't been there…

Jounouchi shivered, it hadn't been cold when he first entered the room, but now it felt like he was freezing. He sat up straight again. It was so cold in the room he could see his own breath. He decided it was time to take that bath. He fumbled around in his bag and took out some shampoo and soap. He momentarily wondered where the bathroom was, when he noticed a door. He opened it and sure enough, there was a bathroom. He switched on the light. It wasn't too different from the bathroom at his apartment, though this one was a lot cleaner, and instead of a shower there stood a bath. Jounouchi wasn't a fan of baths, he thoughts showers were quicker and more efficient.

He put down his stuff on the edge of the tub and opened the taps. He put his hand under the running water and waited till he was satisfied with the temperature of the water. As the water was running Jounouchi started undressing. He lightly touched the surface of the water with his foot and smiled. The water was nice and warm. He got into the bath and slowly laid down, his body getting used to the temperature. He hissed a little when his scraped body got engulfed by the water, but the pain quickly passed. Jounouchi smiled, this felt amazing. He could feel the stress that had built up over the past few days slowly leak out of him. He grabbed the shampoo off of the edge of the bathtub and started soaping up his hair. He liked the foam, it made him think of when he was a kid. He always made a foam-beard and pretended to be an almighty wizard. Jounouchi chuckled and grabbed his soap. For a moment he was tempted to sing, but if Kaiba heard that he would die of shame.

When he felt squeaky clean he rinsed the soap off his body. He went down under and tried to get all the shampoo out of his hair, but when he was ready to go back up again, he couldn't…

Two invisible hands held him down under water. Jounouchi panicked, and flailed about his arms and legs. It did nothing but splash around water. For a moment he felt the hands soften, and he could get out of the water. He made a sound, but before he could actually yell for help he was pressed down under again. Jounouchi tried his best to make as much sound as he could, but he suddenly felt very tired. The water was slowly filling his lungs. His limbs grew heavy and weak. He couldn't feel the invisible hands anymore, but it didn't matter. His vision slowly grew weaker and weaker. He just wanted to sleep.

Two strong hands, suddenly pulled Jounouchi out of the bathtub, and threw him on the bathroom floor. Jounouchi was barely conscious at this point.

"Please tell me I don't have to do this," someone said.

"He's not breathing!" another person yelled.

Jounouchi could vaguely feel Kaiba pushing on his chest. He was slipping in and out of consciousness and could only see darkness.

"It's not working," Mokuba said, his voice sounded choked.

Kaiba sighed and placed his lips on top of Jounouchi's. He pinched Jounouchi's nose closed and started breathing. The effect was almost immediate.

Jounouchi started coughing up water, and then drew a deep breath. He looked at his saviors. Kaiba's clothes were wet from pulling him out of the bathtub, and Mokuba had clearly been crying.

"What the hell was that?" Kaiba shouted when he realized Jounouchi was okay.

"I don't know, I-"Jounouchi wasn't sure whether he should continue the sentence. He knew how Kaiba felt about anything out of the ordinary and invisible hands trying to drown you was definitely not ordinary.

"Don't you EVER scare me like that again?" Kaiba was still shouting. Jounouchi just stared at him. _I scared him?_

"I mean…" Kaiba seemed to have realized what he just said.

"What happened, Jou?" Mokuba seemed to have calmed down. His eyes were red and his cheeks were wet.

"Look, I'll tell you everything, just-"Jounouchi started blushing furiously.

"What is it?" Kaiba asked.

"Well… I'm kinda naked," Jounouchi said. A slight blush appeared on Kaiba's face.

"Yeah, uhm, well," Kaiba stammered, trying his best no to look at Jounouchi, "dry yourself and put some clothes on, I'll see you downstairs."

"What's that?" Mokuba suddenly asked, and he pointed at the damped mirror. Right in the middle of the mirror someone had written two letters in the fog.

'J.K.'

Jounouchi Katsuya.

Tanaka once again stayed home late in the office. He took his job very seriously, something his wife didn't always understand. She wanted her husband home with her. But Tanaka felt he needed to answer a few questions before he was worthy to sleep. He was a perfectionist.

He took out his cell phone and decided to call his loved one, to tell her he wouldn't be home before midnight, again.

"Hello?" a sweet voice sounded on the other end.

"Hey sweetie," Tanaka said.

"Please don't tell me you'll be home late, again," she sounded very annoyed.

"Sorry, I just need to check a few things out, I'll try to hurry up," he said.

"You promised you'd be home in time to tuck the kids in, I promised Aya you would!"

"I'm really sorry…"

"They haven't seen you for two whole days, Akio," she said.

"I just need to…"

"You're sleeping on the couch tonight," she said, she sounded really angry.

"Baby I-"

"No, I don't care," she said, "I don't want to see or hear from you tonight."

She hung up on him.

Tanaka bit his lip and threw the phone on his desk. He knew a fight had been imminent, he had hoped he could've patched things up before it had happened.

He sighed and looked at the phone on the desk. As if he hoped his wife would call him and tell him everything's alright.

"Goddamnit," he cussed. He decided he'd just put the fight out of his mind, for now. He'd figure out how to make things alright again later.

He turned his attention back to his computer screen. He had just received and e-mail from the lab. It simply said to call them. Tanaka once again took his phone and called his co-workers at the lab.

"What do you have?" he asked.

"We have identified the substance as dead skin," a man on the other end said.

"What? Dead skin?" Tanaka asked, "Who's it from?"

"This is going to baffle you even more," the man said, "we ran a DNA test and the skin belongs to someone called 'Natsume Saito'. Ring a bell?"

"It does sound familiar," Tanaka's brow creased. Where had he heard the name before?

He wanted to ask the man if he could refresh his memory, but the phone line went dead. Tanaka looked at his cell phone, he didn't see anything abnormal.

"Lousy connection," he said and he threw it on the desk once again.

"Natsume Saito…" he muttered. And he opened the police database.

It didn't take long to find out who Natsume Saito was. When Tanaka saw the picture of the man on his computer screen, he remembered everything.

Natsume Saito had been all over the news when Tanaka was just a boy. Saito had killed his entire family in cold blood, they never knew why. The man was locked up in a mental hospital, and had died there when the place caught fire. Tanaka remembered how scared he had been of Saito. He always thought Saito was going to kill his family as well.

Tanaka smirked for a while, thinking of his childhood. The smirk quickly faded. What was his skin doing on Jounouchi's pack?

Tanaka's thoughts where quickly interrupted when his phone rang. He looked at the display and saw it was his wife. He smirked again.

"Probably apologizing," he said, and he accepted the call.

"Hello?" he tried to sound as nonchalant as possible.

He heard nothing but breathing on the other end.

"Yumi?" he asked. He felt uncomfortable. He liked hearing her breath in his ear on other occasions, but on the phone it just gave him an incredibly uncomfortable feeling.

"Baby, wha-" the connection was broken.

Tanaka frowned and called her back, this wasn't normal behavior.

"Akio I told you I didn't want to hear from you!" his wife still sounded angry.

"But you just called me!" he was at a loss.

"What?" Yumi sounded confused, "no I didn't…"

"But…" Tanaka started.

"Akio, you're obviously tired, just come home," she said.

"Yeah… Maybe I am getting tired," he said, still confused.

"You're coming home?" Yumi sounded relieved, "oh that's great, that's so great."

"So you're not longer mad?" He asked.

"Not if you get your ass home," she giggled a bit.

Tanaka sighed relieved.

"I'll be home in less than an hour, sweetie," he said.

"Don't keep me waiting," Yumi said and then hung up the phone.

Feeling better Tanaka grabbed his wallet, phone and keys and stood up from his chair. In the corner of his eye he could see something move. He looked around his office. There was nothing but darkness and silence. The strange phone call came back into his mind.

"Someone there?" he asked out loud.

He was about to leave when he heard something. It was the strange breathing he had heard on the phone a while before, only now it was coming right from behind him.

Tanaka grabbed his gun out of the drawer and turned around quickly. He was pointing the gun at darkness.

Then, once again in the corner of his eye he saw something, someone. He turned his head slowly. Only to see himself standing in a mirror.

"I'm such an ass," he said.

His phone once again rang, he took a quick glance at the display, this time it was Kimura.

"Hey Kimura," he said, "What's new?"

"We just arrived back from the island," Kimura said, "we've searched that place all afternoon but we found nothing but the burnt remains of the mental hospital."

"Yeah, didn't think so," Tanaka said, "I found out the strangest thing though…"

"What is it?" Kimura asked.

Throughout the entire conversation Tanaka had looked at the wall, he turned around and looked back in the mirror. This time he wasn't alone, behind him stood the man he had spent his whole childhood being afraid of. A big grin was plastered on Natsume Saito's face. Tanaka's eyes widened and he let the phone drop out of his hand. He was too scared to turn around; all he could do was look at those crazy eyes in the mirror.

"Tell me Tanaka," Saito said in a raspy voice, "Still scared I'll kill your family?"

Tanaka didn't answer; he just looked in the mirror, in pure horror.

"Maybe I will…" Saito said, and he placed his hands on either side of Tanaka's face.

Kimura was asking for Tanaka on the other end. This wasn't like Tanaka. Normally his partner would be bragging in his face about the thing he found out. The thing Kimura had overlooked.

"Tanaka?" Kimura tried again.

He didn't get a reply, all he heard was a sickening crack and the ripping of flesh.

"TANAKA!"

**A.N:** Finished ittt. :3 HOPE YOU GUYS LIKE IT.

This is probably going to sound so pathetic, but I'm getting mildly creeped out by my own story haha. D;

Thanks to my reviewers! You guys always make my day. :3

Thanks for reading!

**Remember to review!** Reviews always make me smile. : D

**BY THE WAY:** I have an idea for a new horror story. I don't know if you guys every read the nosleep section on Reddit? If you dig horror stories, you should really check it out, but only if you're prepared to be scared all night. D;  
>Anyway, I was checking out Reddit, and I got this idea for a new story. What do you guys say? Should I write another horror story? Or should I… not? Haha. Let me know, okay? :3<p> 


	8. Chapter 8: Footsteps

**Chapter eight: footsteps**

The look on Kaiba's face was one of utter disbelief as he listened to the blond's story. They were sitting in the kitchen, Kaiba disinfecting Jounouchi's scrapes. Once in a while Kaiba would sneer or snort derisively, but Jounouchi would pay no heed and just kept on talking. It felt good getting this off his chest.

"And then you rescued me out of the bathtub," Jounouchi blushed a little; he had been very much naked when Kaiba had pulled him out of the water.

"Hn," was all Kaiba said as he put a large band-aid on each of the blond's knees, then he said in a very sarcastic manner, "that's so credible."

"I didn't try to drown myself in that tub, Kaiba," Jounouchi peered right into his eyes, "and you saw the initials on the mirror. J.K. Jounouchi Katsuya. I told you how he keeps on referring to himself with my name…"

"Maybe you're developing a second personality," Kaiba said, "should I call you a psychologist?"

"This isn't a joke Kaiba!" Jounouchi yelled, standing up.

"Oh come on, mutt, do you really expect me to believe what happened?" Kaiba said, getting up as well, "Am I really supposed to believe a ghost killed your dad and then tried to kill you as well?"

Jounouchi wasn't sure what to say; of course he hadn't thought Kaiba would believe him. Kaiba didn't believe in anything supernatural. He looked at the floor and then said: "no, I guess not."

"Well there you have it," Kaiba smirked, "I suggest you go to sleep, we have school in the morning. He walked towards the coffeemaker and poured himself a cup, then exited the kitchen they had been sitting in.

"Ass," Jounouchi muttered under his breath.

"You shouldn't blame him Jounouchi," a voice said, coming from the other door in the kitchen, the one that lead to the dining room, "your tale does sound a bit… far-fetched."

Jounouchi turned towards the voice and saw the younger Kaiba standing in doorway.

"You were eavesdropping?" Jounouchi grinned and walked over to him.

"Of course I was! I wanted to know what happened," Mokuba looked up at Jounouchi, not at all embarrassed about listening in on their conversation.

"So, are you gonna make fun of me as well?" Jounouchi asked.

"No, as a matter of fact I believe you," Mokuba said.

Jounouchi was taken aback for a while.

"Why?" Jounouchi said, sure he wanted people to believe him. But if Mokuba had thought that he was crazy as well he wouldn't have been surprised.

"Mostly because it's you, Jounouchi, I don't see why you would lie about such a thing," Mokuba said, "and as you said, there was no way you could drown yourself in a bathtub."

Jounouchi smiled at the younger Kaiba, at least one of the brothers believed him, and that was enough for him.

It was almost midnight when Jounouchi finally crawled into bed, and it took him all his willpower to finally turn off his nightlight. He felt safer while it was light, but he couldn't stay awake forever.

"I'm seventeen years old, damn it, there's no excuse for a seventeen year old to sleep with his nightlight on."

The moment he turned the switch he regretted his decision. The entire room was engulfed with darkness. The blond said upright in his bed, and waited for his eyes to finally adjust. But even when they did, every shadow looked like him, and he was so terrified to see those eyes staring back at him. So Jounouchi did what any sensible person would do. He covered his head with his sheets and willed his mind to fall asleep. Obviously this didn't work, and Jounouchi started to feel silly underneath his blanket, not only that but it was starting to get hot as well… Just as he was about to throw the blanket off of him he heard it. At first it was a soft pitter-patter, something that could be easily mistaken for something else. But slowly it started getting louder and louder. There was someone pacing around Jounouchi's bed.

Jounouchi was paralyzed with fear under his blanket. That man was in his room, the thing he had been most afraid of was true. Jounouchi held his breath as the footsteps stopped right beside him. Then it was silent once more. Jounouchi released his breath, but still wasn't ready to leave his fortress of blankets. After what felt like hours of listening, he concluded that whatever had been in his room, was now gone. Jounouchi cursed himself for being so cowardly and threw his blanket off of him. He glanced around the room, getting ready to face that man once more, but he saw nothing but darkness. He lay down on his pillow and closed his eyes, and after what felt like forever he finally drifted off to sleep.

It felt he had been asleep for only a few seconds when someone was shaking him awake.

"Jounouchi!" a familiar voice sounded.

"Huh? Wha?" Jounouchi said so very eloquent.

"It's morning, we need to go to school," the voice once again said.

Jounouchi opened his eyes and looked at Mokuba's cheerful face.

"What time is it?" Jounouchi asked.

"7 A.M., we're leaving at 8!" and with those words Mokuba bounded out of the room.

"Where does he get that energy?" Jounouchi asked no one in particular and he crawled out of bed.

He walked into the bathroom and turned on the light. He had half expected there would be a corpse in the tub, but the room was just as it had been the night before. He combed his hair and brushed his teeth, all the while looking at the mirror. The initials were still vaguely noticeable. He grabbed a washcloth, moistened it, and cleaned the mirror.

"There, no more creepy initials," he said satisfied, and then he put on his school uniform and left the bathroom, his stomach growling.

When he entered the kitchen Kaiba was already sitting there in his school uniform, drinking some coffee and reading the news paper. Mokuba was nowhere in sight.

_Jeez, this will be awkward,_ Jounouchi thought as he took a random seat at the kitchen table.

There was an icy silence filling the room that was suddenly broken when Jounouchi's stomach growled yet again. Kaiba looked up from his newspaper with an amused smirk.

"There are some eggs on the fire, mutt," Kaiba said, pointing to the stove.

"I'm not a mutt…" Jounouchi muttered. Kaiba pretended not to hear him. He grabbed the frying pan and loaded his plate with eggs. He then poured himself a cup of coffee with the pot on the table. He tasted the eggs and his eyes widened.

"Wow, these are pretty good! Who made them?" he asked.

"I did," Kaiba said, not looking up from his newspaper.

Jounouchi snorted.

"What, just because I'm rich I can't cook?" Kaiba said, now he was peeking at Jounouchi from the top of the newspaper.

"No…" Jounouchi said slightly embarrassed, "I just expected you to have a chef or something."

"We used to have servants living indoors with us," Mokuba explained as he entered the kitchen.

_Was he eavesdropping again?_ Jounouchi wondered.

"But Seto fired them," Mokuba continued. He sat down happily at the table and filled the bowl in front of him with cereal.

"Why?" Jounouchi asked. _This is so typical of Kaiba, just firing people whenever he pleases…_ Jounouchi thought.

"They were stealing," Kaiba said as-a-matter-of-factly, "I caught them red handed stealing silverware and antique vases."

"Oh…" Jounouchi said, _guess he did have a good reason._

"Yeah, Seto was pretty disappointed," Mokuba said, "these people lived with us and everything, the small building in the backyard used to be servants quarters." Mokuba pointed out of the window, and sure enough there was a building in their back yard… though it wasn't exactly small.

"So how do you guys keep the house so clean?" Jounouchi wondered.

"There are some maids who drop in occasionally, Genta keeps an eye on them mostly," Kaiba said, sipping his coffee, "he's the only one I trust."

He put down his newspaper and looked at Mokuba.

"Eat some fruit," Kaiba said placing an apple next to Mokuba's bowl, "it's good for you."

"Nii-chan! I can decide what I eat, and when I eat it!" Mokuba protested.

"I'm in charge here, and I'm telling you to eat some fruit," Kaiba said as he stood up, he ruffled Mokuba's hair and left the kitchen, no doubt to finish some work before they left for school.

Jounouchi smiled, Kaiba may be a dick to him, but at least he cared about his little brother.

"So, did you sleep well?" Mokuba asked Jounouchi, not bothering to swallow his cereal. For a second the footsteps returned to Jounouchi's mind, but he decided to shrug it off. It had probably been his imagination.

"Yeah, the bed was really comfortable," Jounouchi said.

"Good! Then you can stay here a little longer," Mokuba said happily.

"I don't think your brother would approve," Jounouchi said, eating his eggs.

"Don't worry, I'll make sure he does," Mokuba winked.

Jounouchi just smiled. _Kaiba change his mind? I don't think so._

Half an hour later the three boys were sitting in the limousine, being driven by Genta. Mokuba was reading a comic book, and Kaiba was typing away furiously on his laptop.

"Oh right, Seto?" Mokuba asked, looking at his brother innocently.

"Hm?" Kaiba just said.

"Can Jounouchi stay a bit longer, you know in what a tight spot he is," Mokuba said.

Jounouchi felt his cheeks burn and decided to look out the window and pretend he wasn't there in the car.

Kaiba peered over his laptop at the blond.

"Sure," was all he said as he returned his attention back to the laptop.

Jounouchi couldn't help but smile once more. That was at least one thing he didn't have to worry about.

Kimura had seen a lot of dead bodies in his day; this was not surprising from a detective in the homicide department. People could do terrible things to other people. He had once had a murderer who had beaten a person black and blue, then stabbed the person with a knife, and then eventually cut off all their limbs, only to keep a few stashed in his own fridge. Always he had Tanaka standing beside him, telling him what a 'poor bastard' the victim was. Kimura had never expected Tanaka to be the poor bastard himself.

He had known something was wrong the moment Tanaka stopped replying, he had been on his way home at the time, but turned his car around and headed to the police station at an alarming speed. The building had been dark, there was one person sitting at the desk.

"Hey, Kimura!" the person had greeted him. But Kimura had bolted straight past him, heading to the homicide department. He had thrown open the door and braced himself for the worst. Nothing could have prepared him for this. In the corner of the room, next to the mirror lay a headless Tanaka. There was blood splattered all over the walls. His insides had been ripped out and were sprawled on the floor. The smell was deathly. Kimura took his cell phone and called the rest of the department. Half an hour later the room was crawling with police officers, they were taking pictures of the crime scene. Kimura was sitting on a bench outside in the hallway, someone had given him coffee but it had gone cold without him sipping it even once.

"Kimura, I'm sorry…" a grey balding man with a moustache and a gentle look said, sitting down next to the detective, "he was a good man."

"Chief…" was all Kimura said, as he looked at the ground, "Did someone alert Yumi?"

"Someone left here a while ago to tell her the news," Chief said, "I was going to ask you, but I figure you've had a hard enough time as it is."

Kimura kept staring at the same tile. He had been very close with Tanaka and his family. He had never gotten tied down himself, and Tanaka knew Kimura always came home to an empty apartment. So Tanaka had invited him over every weekend. Yumi had always stood there, with her big brown eyes and her warm smile.

"I'm going to find him…" Kimura said.

The chief gave him a questionable look.

"I'm going to find the bastard who did this!" He yelled, and he stood up, walking towards the door where his best friend lay dead.

"How's everything going?" he asked one of the policemen going over the scene.

"It's very strange…" he said.

"What is?" Kimura asked.

"We can't find his head anywhere…"

**A.N: **I'm so sorry it's been so long!

I had to re-do some exams over the summer and have been very busy. I just had my results today and they were rather splendid so I decided to celebrate by writing another chapter.

I know it's rather short, I promise the next one will be longer… and very much creepier. :3

I hope you all had a good summer! And to those of you who started a new school year, good luck! : D

**Remember to review!**

Bye my lovelies~!


	9. Chapter 9: Unwelcome light

**Chapter nine: unwelcome light**

The first half of the day passed by in a blur. All Jounouchi really remembered were hundreds of looks filled with pity, a few dozen people going 'are you okay?' and 'do you want to talk about it?' and his friends, keeping their eyes on him longer than they normally did. Though Jounouchi normally didn't mind being the center of attention, he couldn't help but despising the people giving it to him now. He knew he shouldn't feel like that towards his friends, but he just couldn't help it at that moment.

"So how was your night at the shelter, Jou?" Yuugi asked. It was lunch, and though Jounouchi'd normally be stuffing pizza or fries down his throat, he didn't really feel like eating anything right now.

"I didn't exactly stay at a shelter," Jounouchi said. "I sort of got run over by Kaiba and ended up staying at his place. I'm going back there after school," he said this in a rather nonchalant manner.

His friends seemed rather dumbstruck at this statement. It was silent for a while, and then Yuugi finally said: "Well, I'm happy Kaiba's acting friendly." Jounouchi just smiled.

After that very awkward lunch, the rest of the day seemed to pass at an even more alarming rate, and before he knew it he was back in the limo on his way to Kaiba's mansion. It was just him and Jounouchi in the car. Kaiba had already gone to Kaiba Corp to work.

"How was your day, Jou?" Mokuba asked sweetly.

"It was okay," he just said, not in the mood for small talk.

The rest of the car ride was spent in a silence. Mokuba seemed happy enough just to stare out of the window, though. Maybe the little guy had more empathy than people give him credit for.

A soft breeze was blowing when Jounouchi crawled out of the limousine. It wasn't particularly a hot day, but the sun was shining and that was enough to make it a nice day. The spring blossoms were visible in the sky, as the breeze took them to places they'd never been before. Jounouchi smiled involuntarily as he made his way to the house. Mokuba just one step behind him, humming a cheerful song.

Jounouchi pushed open the door. A young woman came running towards him.

"You must be Mister Jounouchi!" she said sweetly, taking his jacket from him, "Master Kaiba told us you'd be staying over. My name is Ayami, if you need anything just ask."

"I, uh, thanks," Jounouchi said, feeling a bit uncomfortable.

"Come on Jou, let's play some videogames!" Mokuba said happily.

"Now, master Mokuba, you know that master Kaiba doesn't like it when you don't do your homework straight after school," she said, still having that sweet smile on her face.

"Yeah but Ayami, he isn't here right now…" Mokuba tried.

The smile disappeared and she just looked at him in a stern manner.

"But I guess I'll just go do it anyway!" Mokuba said, he then bolted up the stairs.

"I'll go see how dinner's coming along," Ayami said and left.

For a moment Jounouchi just stood there, in the welcome hall, awkward and alone.

"Come on Jou! Let's go do homework," Mokuba was standing at the top of the stairs.

Jounouchi just laughed and followed him.

The next few hours was spent in Mokuba's bedroom. Jounouchi sat at his desk; books sprawled out in front of him, whereas Mokuba was just sitting on his bed.

The room was painted a bright blue, and had dark blue drapes. Duel Monster toys were on every shelf and clearly outnumbered the amount of books the boy had. A few posters adorned the walls, all of them Duel Monsters. The room was a typical twelve-year-old boy's room. It made Jounouchi wistfully nostalgic, even though he never had the luxury Mokuba has.

When Kaiba came home around 6PM they all had dinner together. A succulent roast with mashed potatoes, warm vegetables and a kind of mustard-y sauce. It was amazingly prepared and possibly some of the fanciest food that Jounouchi'd ever eaten.

After dinner Kaiba disappeared upstairs and Mokuba and Jounouchi retreated into the TV-room. A giant room featuring a giant TV and shelves filled with both movies and videogames.

Mokuba popped a game into his XBOX and the two boys started playing to their heart's content.

They'd been playing for an hour when the sound of a doorbell rang throughout the entire mansion. Jounouchi put down his controller and looked at Mokuba.

"Don't worry, Jou, Ayami will get the door," Mokuba said.

But a second later Ayami softly opened the door and peered in.

"There's a police officer at the door wishing to talk to you, Mister Jounouchi," she said softly.

Jou got up and followed Ayami to the huge oak front door.

The police officer standing there was no stranger to Jounouchi. He had come to see him in the hospital as well. What was his name again? Kisami? Kimari?

"Good day, Mister Jounouchi," he started, "It's detective Kimura, we met in the hospital, if you remember?"

_Right, Kimura._

"Is it OK if I step inside for a moment?" he said, not waiting for an answer he stepped inside the income hall. He took a notepad from his vest pocket.

"Err, sir, I'm not sure if Master Kaiba approves of this," Ayami said timidly.

"It'll only take a second," Kimura said, "So Jounouchi, what were your exact whereabouts yesterday evening around 12 PM?"

"I was here," Jounouchi said, "Why? What happened?"

"I'm the one asking the questions here," Kimura said.

"I think you're wrong about that. What are you doing in my home?" An ice cold voice sounded behind Jounouchi.

Before Jounouchi could wonder how he had appeared so silently behind him, Kaiba strode past him, fixing his eyes on the detective.

"I'm here with regards to an investigation, Mister Kaiba, "I just need to ask a Mister Jounouchi a few questions."

"Go ahead," Kaiba said, stepping out of the way.

"Err, okay, can anyone verify that you were here yesterday?" Kimura said, obviously thrown off balance.

"I can," Kaiba said, before Jounouchi could even open his mouth to answer.

"Do you have any proof that he was actually here?" Kimura asked.

"Are you suggesting I'm a liar?" Kaiba said, coldness dripping from his voice.

"I said no such thing mister Kaiba. Why? Are you?" Kimura smirked.

Kaiba's gaze could turn a man to stone, it was a miracle Kimura didn't start cowering in the corner.

"Get out." Was all he said.

"Please mister Kaiba, I just require some proof," Kimura said, "I could have you arrested for obstructing police investigation."

"Let's see how long you'll keep your job if you do that," Kaiba said, he then pointed at the door, "Out."

Kimura just sighed, put away his notepad and stepped outside.

"I'll return tomorrow with a warrant," Kimura said.

"You do that," Kaiba retorted, slamming the door shut.

Jounouchi just stood there with his mouth open staring at Kaiba.

"That was a detective!" Jounouchi yelled, "You could have at least pretended to be nice."

"Then shouldn't he have done the same?" Kaiba asked heading back towards the staircase, "He has no business entering my house without my permission. Not to mention threatening to arrest me isn't exactly a 'nice thing'. Don't let them walk over you like that, Jounouchi. You're better than that."

Jounouchi just looked at him when he went back upstairs.

"What happened Jou?" Mokuba asked, standing in the doorway to the TV room.

"Nothing, don't worry Mokuba," Jounouchi flashed a quick smile and went back to playing videogames with him.

9 PM came around and Jounouchi was just sitting on the couch watching the news. It didn't say anything about the investigation concerning Jounouchi's dad. He suspected it was all kept on the hush-hush. Possibly because of the oddity of the case.

Kaiba entered the room and sat down next to Jounouchi on the couch. A steaming cup of coffee in his hands.

"Where's Mokuba?" Kaiba asked him.

"He left when the news came on," Jounouchi said smiling, "said he didn't really care about that. He's probably up in his room."

Kaiba just snorted and drank some of the black liquid.

"Hey Kaiba," Jounouchi said, rubbing the back of his neck, "I just wanted to thank you for standing up for me earlier."

Kaiba didn't say anything, just kept his eyes fixed on the TV screen. But Jounouchi could see the shadow of a smile playing on his lips.

Jounouchi also looked at the screen and pretended to be interested in the shenanigans of some politician the news was talking about. He felt at peace just sitting there in the dark, next to someone who didn't give him those sad smiles. Someone who would still act the same towards him. But was he acting the same? It'd been a while since he'd made another mutt remark…

Jounouchi was startled from his train of thoughts when out of the corner of his eye he saw a light had turned on suddenly. It came from the little building that used to be the servant's quarters. Kaiba had noticed it as well as he got up and walked towards the window, carefully peering out of it.

"Probably Mokuba," Kaiba said, "though he knows I don't like it when he goes out after dark."

"What's in the house that he'd need right now?" Jounouchi asked.

"We put a bunch of toys in there that we couldn't keep inside the mansion; there are a lot of Duel Monster cards there as well. Perhaps he wanted to look at them," Kaiba replied.

Jounouchi got up and stood next to Kaiba. The quarters were lit up scarcely, with the curtains closed. Nothing moved inside. A shiver ran across Jounouchi's spine the moment he stared at that building.

Kaiba sighed and picked up the telephone located next to the TV. He dialed a number and listened into the horn intensely.

Time moved past slowly yet no one picked up the phone on the other end. Kaiba hung up and sighed again.

"I just tried calling, but Mokuba's not picking up," Kaiba said.

Just then a shadow moved past the curtain.

Kaiba punched in the number again and listened into the horn once more. Jounouchi could hear the dial tone. Seconds went by slowly, but no one picked up. Then there was a soft click sound, followed by silence.

"Mokuba?" Kaiba said, unwavering.

But there was no reply whatsoever. The shadow moved past the window again.

"Mokuba this isn't funny, get your butt back to the mansion or you'll be grounded for months," Kaiba said, sternly. But there still wasn't a reply.

Jounouchi's hands started shaking. He knew who was in the house.

"Mokuba," Kaiba repeated, a bit louder.

The shadow now moving past the window more frequently. Almost as if he was taunting them.

"Mokuba I swear-"

"Swear what, big brother?" A voice rang out behind them. Kaiba turned around wide eyed, phone still in hand. Standing behind them was his little brother dressed in pajamas.

Kaiba immediately snapped back towards the window, watching at the servant's quarters. The shadow was standing still in front of the scarcely lit curtain. It was taunting them. Just then an inhuman scream ripped through the horn. Then a click and all was quiet.

Kaiba snarled and immediately called the emergency line.

After a short conversation with whoever was on the other side, and never once moving his eyes away from the shadow, he threw down the phone and left the room.

"Where are you going Kaiba?" Jounouchi asked, bounding after him, his eyes lingering only a little while on the shadow. Mokuba followed both of them, confusion visible in his eyes.

"If it's that detective he better get ready for an ass-kicking," Kaiba said opening a closet door and getting out a baseball bat.

"Wait, you think that Kimura guy is in there?" Jounouchi asked.

"Who else? Your ghost?" Kaiba permitted himself a slight smirk, but then quickly turned serious again as he opened the back door and stepped outside.

It was cool and the smell of rain wafted in the air.

"Kaiba shouldn't you wait until the cops are here at least?" Jounouchi pleaded, "This could be very dangerous!"

"What's even going on?" Mokuba shouted loudly, obviously very confused.

Kaiba turned around and pushed Mokuba back inside.

"You stay there," he said in a tone that would allow to 'buts' or 'maybes'. He then turned towards Jounouchi, his face only barely lit by the light streaming out of the mansion windows. "If I wait for the cops he'll be long gone."

He closed the back door and bounded into the darkness towards the small building. Mokuba was just standing at the window peering out. Jounouchi swore loudly and ran after Kaiba.

They got the house and Kaiba immediately reached out towards the doorknob. He jiggled it but the door refused to open. For a moment confusion entered Kaiba's gaze, but it disappeared just as quickly as it had appeared. He searched in his pockets and pulled out a key ring featuring a few keys. He searched for a while and then stuck a key in the lock. He turned it twice and the door opened. Jounouchi looked at the window before he followed Kaiba inside, but the shadow had gone.

Jounouchi could see the remnants of a kitchen, but most of the house had been transformed into a kid's paradise. There were a ton of toys, a huge TV and Duel Monster merchandise everywhere.

While Jounouchi had been admiring the room Kaiba was going from room to room opening doors and shouting threats. But nothing greeted them but eerie silence.

"He must have left right before we entered," Kaiba said, searching for an explanation.

He set down the bat and ran his fingers through his hair. His eyes kept looking around the room, as if he expected someone to still be there, hiding in the shadows.

As Jounouchi was about to suggest to leave and wait for the police, the door they had just entered through slammed shut. Kaiba quickly took up the bat again and frantically looked around the room. The little bit of light that was lighting the inside of the building suddenly gave in, and darkness engulfed the pair.

"Kaiba, where are you?" Jounouchi shouted, panicking.

"Still right next to you, idiot," Kaiba said.

Though normally Jounouchi would have told Kaiba to shut up, he could feel nothing but relief. He searched in the dark and finally found Kaiba's arm, he held on to it tightly.

"Sorry," Jounouchi said, "I'd just rather not lose you in the dark."

"Sorry for what?" Kaiba said, but he was no longer standing beside him, he sounded much further away, "Fuck, I can't find the light switch anywhere."

"But wait, if you're over there, then-"

But before Jounouchi could finish the sentence a hand gripped hold of his arm and started squeezing it tightly. Nails started digging in his skin and Jounouchi couldn't do anything but scream.

"What's wrong?" He heard Kaiba shout, but a hand covered Jounouchi's mouth and he couldn't answer anymore.

He heard Kaiba stumbling about the room and knocking over a few toys.

"Fuck I can't see anything," Kaiba said, "Where are you?"

Jounouchi tried his best to make sound in order to let Kaiba know his location, but fear had gripped his vocal cords and he couldn't get anything past his lips.

A stench of rotting decay filled his nose, and he could sense those wild eyes just peering into his. He could hear Kaiba stumbling about in the dark.

"Why don't you try screaming?" a voice entered his ears. It sounded gruff and dead. Not like how the man had sounded on the island at all.

Tears just leaked out of Jounouchi's eyes as fear immobilized him.

Outside the faint sound of sirens was heard, but they seemed worlds away.

Suddenly two hands gripped Jounouchi, releasing him from the dead man's grip. The arms wrapped themselves around Jounouchi. Not unkind, protecting him. Almost immediately the stench disappeared and the lights turned back on.

Kaiba had his arms wrapped around Jounouchi tightly, burying his face in Jounouchi's hair.

"Whu-" was all that left Jounouchi's mouth.

Kaiba quickly let him go, at a loss for words.

"I don't know why I did that," he said, "I just felt the urge to…"

Jounouchi wasn't sure what to say, he just turned around and looked at Kaiba. Voices were heard outside, and soon enough the door swung open revealing a few police officers.

"We had a report about a breaking and entering," one of them said to Kaiba.

Kaiba stayed silent for a moment and just looked at Jounouchi. Then he regained his composure and turned to the officer.

They walked back to the mansion a while later, not saying a word. An awkward atmosphere hung in the air.

Kaiba quickly went upstairs with Mokuba to put him to bed as the policemen searched the house in the garden. Jounouchi felt stunned as he looked at them moving through the house. Kaiba moved up silently behind him and stood next to him looking out the window.

Wordlessly he took Jounouchi's arm. It was badly bruised and imprints of fingernails were embedded in his skin. A bit of blood was drawn. Kaiba let his fingers run over them softly, confusion spread about his face. It was as if he had come to face with something he just couldn't believe, yet the evidence was right in front of him. A shiver ran down Jounouchi's spine, but this time it wasn't because he was afraid. Then it suddenly dawned on Kaiba what he was doing and he let go of Jounouchi's arm.

"How about some coffee?" He asked.

Jounouchi just nodded and followed him to the kitchen.

The police ended up finding nothing in the servant's quarters. The only thing they found were two initials scratched into the corner of a wall.

"J.K."

**A.N: **I know. It's been long. Don't kill me hahaha. I'm still working on this, don't worry.  
>I hope you guys like the chapter! I'll try to get a new one out as soon as possible.<p>

**Remember to review guys!**

Have a nice day, wherever you are. :3


	10. Chapter 10: A few steps closer

**Chapter ten: A few steps closer**

"What do you mean, the only suspect we have is a dead person?" the chief inspector bellowed behind his desk.

"We found some of his skin in the Jounouchis' apartment," Kimura said.

"And we're certain that Jounouchi kid didn't go around digging up his body?" the chief inspector asked, "after all didn't he go on a trip to the island?"

"Sir, Natsume Saito perished in the asylum fire, he doesn't have a body to be dug up," Kimura explained.

"What if we have some sort of advanced copy-cat killer on our hands?" the chief inspector asked, "The murder of Jounouchi Hiroshi was quite similar to how Natsume murdered his own father."

"But that wouldn't explain the flecks of skin," Kimura countered.

"I don't give a shit about some flecks of skin. What I give a shit about is catching that damn murderer. I've been having a very difficult time keeping the press off this case, and I can't hold them off forever. I suggest you catch someone very soon or your position is in danger," The chief inspector threatened. He then lit up a cigarette and turned his back to Kimura.

Kimura just nodded and retreated from his office, sweat rolling down his brow. The chief inspector had never been a kind person, but it was the first time he'd actually threatened Kimura this way. There was only one thing he could do right now, and that was talk to Jounouchi.

He decided to go back to the mansion right away; he'd just hoped that Kaiba would actually be more cooperative this time. He was certain that if someone as powerful as Kaiba Seto would go complain to the chief inspector he'd lose his job in an instant. Kimura could not afford this.

He stepped out of the police station and was instantly greeted by a heavy breeze and rain. It wasn't a very pleasant day in Domino city, everywhere Kimura saw people running for shelter. He walked to the parking lot, got in his car and started heading towards Kaiba's mansion. It was a Saturday, so someone was bound to be home.

The guard at the gate looked at him unpleasantly but decided letting him through when he showed his police badge, he rode all the way to the front door and got out. He rang the doorbell once and almost immediately heard footsteps on the other side. The door opened lightly, and Kimura could see the same servant of the day before.

"Can I help you?" She asked in a timid way, obviously she had not forgotten who he was.

"Could I please talk to Jounouchi Katsuya," Kimura said, holding up his police badge again.

"I'm sorry, but master Kaiba told us we're not allowed to let you inside," she said.

"Then I'll just wait out here until you get him for me," Kimura said.

Ayami just nodded and closed the door again. It took a while until someone came back, and Kimura was almost certain she'd just left him standing out there, but then he once again heard someone approaching, and soon enough he saw a mop of familiar blond hair.

"Yeah, what do you want?" Jounouchi asked.

"I just want to ask you a few questions regarding your father's death," Kimura asked him. He saw the blond boy wince notably at the mention of his father, but he stepped outside anyway.

"I don't think letting you inside is a good idea," Jounouchi explained, "Wouldn't wanna piss off Kaiba."

"I can understand that," Kimura said, as he once again got out his notepad, "So, can you once again describe to me what happened on the island?"

"I've told you before," Jounouchi said exasperated, but then he continued anyway, "We left Saturday morning and planned on staying there until Monday morning. The first day was rather uneventful apart from my backpack being emptied and my wallet being stolen."

"There were other people on the island?" Kimura asked him.

"We never saw any indication that there were other people on the island. But then Sunday evening I ran into this guy. He started rambling about the strangest stuff and tried attacking me, I defended myself and he fell off the cliff… I thought I killed him but… But his body was gone the next day," he continued his story.

Kimura was silent for a while and then sighed: "Can you please describe the man?"

"He was about twenty years old, long black hair. He looked like he'd been wandering the island for days. He was wearing dirty, white pajamas. And his eyes…" Jounouchi stopped for a while.

"What about them?" Kimura asked, glancing up.

"They were the eyes of Death," Jounouchi said, his voice growing more silent.

Kimura just squinted his eyes as he looked at him.

"He kept referring to himself as Jounouchi Katsuya; he kept saying we were the same…" Jounouchi's voice grew softer and softer as he said this, his eyes staring at something in the distance.

The confusion on Kimura's face grew as he heard what Jounouchi said. Then he asked: "Have you ever heard of a man called Natsume Saito?"

Jounouchi looked up from whatever he was thinking and just shook his head.

"Doesn't ring a bell," he replied.

"Never mind, it's nothing," Kimura said, he then put away the notepad, "Thank you for your cooperation."

"Wait a second!" Jounouchi said as Kimura walked back to his car, "Please tell me you found something about my dad's murder."

"I cannot tell you this mister Jounouchi," Kimura said, "By the way, I heard about the breaking and entering you guys had a few days back, I trust nothing important had gone missing?"

"Look you'll probably think I'm insane but, it was the man from the island," Jounouchi did look slightly delirious as he said this.

"We'll figure out who did it, don't worry," Kimura said, completely disregarding what Jounouchi said, "make sure to always lock your doors and windows."

The detective then got in his car and drove off.

"What was that name he said? Natsume Saito?" Jounouchi said to no one in particular. He went back inside the mansion and started looking for Mokuba.

"Do you guys happen to have a computer I can borrow," Jounouchi asked him when he found him.

"Yeah sure, it's in the living room downstairs," Mokuba said, looking up from his Duel Monster cards, "What's wrong Jounouchi?"

"Nothing, it's just an assignment I have to work on for school," Jounouchi lied.

He went to the living room and turned on the computer. As it was starting up he stared out the window. There was a man standing there in a black suit. Ever since the thing happened in the servant's quarters Kaiba had doubled the security around the house. Of course Kaiba hadn't believed Jounouchi when he said it had been the man from the island, but he hadn't been able to give any other explanation to the even either. He just kept on ignoring Jounouchi whenever he'd try to talk to him about it. It's like he was refusing to acknowledge what had happened. Other than tightening the security Kaiba had said nothing else about the affair.

Not even about the awkward hug he had given Jounouchi. Jou's cheeks flared a bright red as he thought about what had happened. He was so close to suffocating, but Kaiba had saved him. It had been such a simple gesture, just letting him know he wasn't alone. So unlike Kaiba. He had asked Kaiba about it later but he wouldn't give any comment. Said he didn't know what Jounouchi was talking about. But somewhere Jounouchi wanted to believe that Kaiba had been worried and wanted nothing more than to protect him. This was a silly thought of course; Kaiba couldn't care less about Jounouchi. But he couldn't help but wonder…

During these musings the computer had started up. Jounouchi opened the internet browser and started googling the name Kimura had told him.

_Natsume Saito._

A ton of pages came up, most of them were newspaper articles, and all said the same thing. Natsume Saito, 21 year old boy. Killed his abusive father in a brutal fashion, and then killed his mother and brother. In the end he even killed the girl he loved. They had a trial and he had been declared mentally unstable. They had locked him up in the asylum on Domino Island and he stayed there until it burnt down and killed everyone inside. There was a picture of the trial next to one of the articles. Jounouchi's eyes widened as he recognized him immediately. He looked exactly the same way as he did when he first saw him on the island.

Jounouchi's heart was beating in his throat when he continued on looking for information. There were some reports of his time in the mental institution. His heartbeat grew faster and louder with every word he read.

_Natsume Saito suffers from a strong form of Schizophrenia. Instead of coming up with multiple personalities he adapts other people's personas. He has a knack of picking out the people in the mental institution that have a history of abuse. He then starts referring to himself with their name and starts following them around in the institution. He is certain that they are the same person. He has shown to become violent when the person refuses to let him come close. He'll attack family when they come to visit or try to coerce the person into harming himself. All the while he keeps saying they're the same person._

_Wasn't that what he had been saying on the island,_ Jounouchi thought,_ He kept saying we were the same…_

Another article explained Natsume's descent into insanity.

_His father had always been an abusive drunk. He'd hit the boy at random occasions, leave him to take care of the house while he'd go drinking and refuse the boy basic needs such as showering, food and a bed to sleep in. Natsume hated the man and would show violent behavior when interviewed about him. He was certain that it was all his mother's doing. When he was just a boy his mother had taken his younger brother and left him. Natsume never forgave her for leaving him behind. _

_One day Natsume came home from college and got into a fight with his father. The fight ended in a bloody manner when he 'just took up a knife and started cutting,' as Natsume refers to it. When he realized what he'd done he knew there was no way out of it anymore. Something inside him had snapped, and all the hate he'd felt throughout the years just kept flowing out of him. He gripped the knife tightly and walked the entire way to his mother's house. When he arrived there he strangled and then started skinning her. His younger brother walked in on him whilst he was doing this. Natsume said: "I had no plans of hurting my little brother. I loved my little brother. We were about the same person. But when he started screaming at me, I just couldn't believe it. That hag that called herself my mother had brainwashed him against me. I had to shut him up. I couldn't bear his disappointment."_

_Natsume had cut the young boy's throat and removed his vocal cords. We later found out he had cooked them and then eaten them. When inquired about why he did that he replied: "I had to do it. This way he is always with me. It sings inside me sometimes. It tells me the sweetest things. I love my little brother."_

_Natsume's killing spree didn't end there. He knew that what he had done was wrong, and he ran to the only person he thought would forgive him. His girlfriend Kaia. But when he entered the house and she saw him dripping with blood she threatened to call the police. He didn't know what else to do, so he cut off her hands. "I didn't want to kill her," Natsume said, "She was so soft and sweet… But I couldn't let her call the cops on me either." When the police finally found Natsume, he was sitting next to her on the couch. He was holding the girl in his arms, she had bled to death. He was laughing and kept repeating: "She did this to herself. No one told her she had to bleed, but she just wouldn't stop. She just kept leaking, and asking me to help her but I couldn't. That's what you get when you don't accept the cold hard facts." When asked about the facts he just laughed and whispered: "They have to die to become part of me."_

_Another curious thing was that when they found Natsume he was dressed in his girlfriend's clothes and he dressed his dead girlfriend in his clothes. After the day of the trial Natsume was declared insane and was sent away to the mental institution on Domino island. _

Jounouchi's heart kept pounding away as he read the article. It all sounded so familiar to him. The abusive father, the hate against his mother. The constant fear of disappointing his sister. Was this what Natsume had meant at the island? Were they the same person? Jounouchi blinked a tear away as he reread the article.

He felt so stupid, crying over this. But he couldn't help it. He felt embarrassed and looked out the window, making sure the security guy wasn't looking. But the person standing at the window wasn't the security guy. Natsume was standing there, as clear as day. His eyes boring through Jounouchi's soul as he was peering in. A crazy smile playing around his lips. Jounouchi fell out of his chair and started backing up rapidly until his back hit a wall. All the while he kept his eyes on Natsume, his mouth repeating the word 'no' over and over again. But Natsume's head kept moving up and down. Yes. Jounouchi closed his eyes and rubbed them, hoping it would make Natsume disappear. When he opened them he saw the security guy standing there again. A shudder of relief washed over his back, as he just sat there on the floor, looking at the window.

That's how Kaiba found him, a few hours later. Jounouchi was resting his head on top of his knees, still sitting on the floor. Kaiba just looked at him and cleared his throat. Jounouchi immediately stood looked up and tried to stand up straight. A sudden rush of blood to the head prevented this, however, and he fell down again.

"You know only dogs sit on the floor," Kaiba said.

"Just the way you like it, right?" Jounouchi mumbled.

"Please act like an adult," Kaiba held out his hand. Jounouchi took it and Kaiba pulled him to his feet.

"What does it even matter?" Jounouchi asked him, "In the end everything turns to shit anyway."

"Oh, don't give me that crap," Kaiba started.

"But it's true, isn't it?" Jounouchi said, "We've been to hell and back and it never gets better. There's always something new that comes up and fucks everything up. I don't know what to do anymore. I feel like I'm going insane."

"Well I agree with you there," Kaiba said, he then noticed the computer was still on, "What are you researching?"

He walked over to the computer, picked the chair up from off the ground and sat down in front of it.

"Natsume Saito," he murmured as he read the article, "Is this your ghost?"

"I don't know what he is. But he is the one I've been seeing everywhere," he replied.

Kaiba just remained quiet as his eyes scanned the article. After he finished reading he just turned around and looked at Jounouchi.

"Looking up these kinds of things would make everyone paranoid," he just said, as he got up from the chair, "We'll be having dinner soon."

"You're not going to mock me about the article?" Jounouchi asked.

"I don't intend to, no," Kaiba just said.

"No comments about how alike we are?" Jounouchi said, "I mean, my situation at home wasn't exactly a secret. My drunken father and my mother bailing out on me. Just like Natsume's family."

Kaiba just frowned as he looked at Jounouchi.

"Nothing?!" Jounouchi was yelling now.

"You're nothing like him, Jounouchi," Kaiba said, "I don't know anything about your father or mother. But I do know you wouldn't ever hurt your sister. You're a good guy."

He once again turned around to leave, but Jounouchi stopped him, laying a hand on his shoulder.

"Thank you," Jounouchi just said.

Kaiba just nodded and left the room.

Jounouchi stood in the living room for a while, it was quiet and empty. A determined look suddenly appeared in his eyes, like he had made some sort of decision. Then he turned around as well, and left the room behind him.

**A.N: **a bit of a slow chapter, but I had to get it done. This time you didn't have to wait so long, right? Hahasorry.

Anyway; I hope you enjoyed it. Remember to review!

I hope you all have a nice day. :3


	11. Chapter 11: Realization

**Chapter eleven: realization **

Sometimes the cold truth of reality feels like splash of freezing water in the face. We walk around all day, feeling sort of OK. Then something comes along that shatters everything. Sure, we all have problems that we drag along like a dead horse. Some problems are big, some are small. Some are insignificant and some are humongous. Life molds us, on some occasions forcefully so, into who we are, or who we must become. Hardships prepare us for what may come, and lessons come forth of what has already happened. Reality will forcefully pursue you until it catches up. And it forces you to look at what it is you _have _to do.

Reality caught up with Jounouchi when he answered his cell phone one morning, a few weeks after his father had died. Reality spoke with the voice of his beloved sister Shizuka. Reality blared the same three words over and over again in his ears.

"Mother has died."

The words felt like someone slapped him in the face, hard. The colour drained from his face, as he was sharing breakfast with the Kaiba's. Kaiba immediately saw something was wrong and sent Mokuba up to his room to continue get ready for school. Kaiba also quietly left the room, giving Jounouchi the privacy he deserved.

"Her skin was torn off," Shizuka continued, sobbing in between her words, "The police say they've never seen anything like this before."

_But they have,_ Jounouchi thought, _this is the exact same way Natsume killed his mom._

"Oh God, there was blood everywhere," she cried.

"Shizuka, where are you now?" Jounouchi asked her.

"I-I'm at the police station," Shizuka replied, "They're going to question me about this… Y-you don't think they think I killed her, do you?"

"Of course not sis," Jounouchi tried to comfort her, "they're just going to ask you some routine questions, and then they'll let you go."

"But w-what will I do, big brother?" Shizuka asked him, the sobs getting louder, "I have no place to go."

"Stay with some friends," Jounouchi urged her, "whatever you do, don't be on your own."

"Y-you think I'm in d-danger as well?" Shizuka asked him, he could hear the fear in her eyes.

"As long as you surround yourself with people you'll be fine," Jounouchi said. Though he wished he could believe it.

They talked for a little while after that, mostly Jounouchi just trying to calm his sister down. Then the police officers told her she had to hang up for questioning.

Jounouchi hung up the phone and stared at his plate for a while. The eggs had gone cold, but that didn't matter. Jounouchi's appetite disappeared. He wished he could just have Shizuka come here, but the distance between them was too big, and he didn't want her to travel by herself. He had to stop this somehow, or Shizuka would be the one who had to pay the price.

So instead of packing his bag to go to school, he just quickly grabbed some important stuff: his wallet, a flashlight, a knife and a compass. He took out his phone and dialed one last number before he left the house; Anzu. She answered with a timid 'Hello' and Jounouchi asked her the question he most desperately needed the answer to: "What's Mr. Ikeda's number?"

A surprised Anzu gave him the number, but before she could ask him what for, he hung up on her.

Jounouchi was long gone when Kaiba came looking for him, telling him they were about to leave for school. When he entered Jounouchi's bedroom and noticed he wasn't there, he speedily informed Ayami and together they searched the house. When Kaiba looked at the security cameras as a last resort he noticed that Jounouchi had just up and left. He tried his best to ignore the painful twang in his chest, when he watched the black and white footage of the boy gathering some of his stuff and leaving.

"His clothes are still in the house, master Kaiba," Ayami said, "he'll probably be back soon."

"Throw them out on the sidewalk," Kaiba said scornfully, "he's not allowed back inside."

He then went back to his office to gather his own stuff, and didn't acknowledge anyone, not even Mokuba (who was pleading for Jounouchi), until they got to school.

He'd believed Jounouchi had left without him that morning as a sign of showing how much he still disrespected Kaiba. Somewhere Kaiba had expected no less, seeing as how he'd treated the boy throughout the years. But he'd given him a place to stay when he had nowhere to go, the least Jounouchi could do was just appreciate that fact. The fact that he left without telling him anything felt the same as being slapped in the face, and Kaiba didn't like that someone had that much power over him, could make him feel betrayed. Kaiba realized grudgingly as he was walking to class that he had allowed Jounouchi to get too close to him.

When he opened the classroom door he had believed that Jounouchi would already be there, chatting away with his geeky friends. The geek squad was there all right, but Jounouchi was not with them. They seemed worried and were whispering amongst each other. Kaiba just shrugged it off. Jounouchi was probably late again.

The teacher entered the class and the murmur amongst the students settled down. Roll call was next, and when there was no voice piping in when the teacher read the name 'Jounouchi Katsuya', he frowned and automatically looked at Yuugi.

Yuugi just shrugged and said he hadn't seen Jounouchi. His eyes met Kaiba for a while, but Kaiba just gave an icy glance and looked away.

"Oh right, he had some family difficulties, I forgot," was all the teacher said before he continued reading names off of his list.

A few kids sniggered in the back of the classroom, and Kaiba had to grind his teeth in order not to lash out at them.

When the bell chimed that it was lunchtime, and Jounouchi still hadn't showed up, Kaiba started to get worried. He remembered the phone call Jounouchi had gotten in the morning, and he hoped to God Jounouchi hadn't done anything stupid.

_Stupid is all that mutt ever does, _Kaiba thought, still feeling betrayed by Jounouchi's sudden disappearance. But his mind kept on wandering, and he couldn't help but feel worried. It felt as if his stomach had transformed into a rock, and the bland cafeteria food tasted even worse than normal. Kaiba's eyes kept travelling over to Yuugi's table; they looked just as miserable as he felt. Kaiba sighed in an annoyed manner, threw down his cutlery and strode over to their table.

The frantic whispering of the friends fell dead when Kaiba approached them. They all looked at their plates, refusing to talk; only Yuugi gazed up at Kaiba, giving him a half-smile, worry never leaving his eyes.

"Hey Kaiba," Yuugi said.

"Why isn't he here?" Kaiba asked, straight to the point.

"Isn't that what we should be asking you?" Honda asked, sharply, "weren't _you_ taking care of him?"

"Last time I checked I wasn't the dog's master," Kaiba snarled back, "besides, aren't you guys his friends? I just provided a roof over his head, that's all."

"You know what, Kaiba?" Honda stood up straight, but even then Kaiba was the bigger of the two, "we have no clue why Jou decided to stay with you, but we don't trust you. For all we know you just dumped him out in the street somewhere!"

"Yes, this is why I come to ask you where he is. Because I threw him out," Kaiba gave a nasty grin, "master detective What's-his-name has done it again."

"The name's Hiroto Honda!" Honda shouted.

"I don't give a shit who you are, I came here for information, not to be shouted at. It's obvious you guys are still the losers I thought you were," Kaiba turned on his heels and was ready to walk back to his table when Yuugi's voice made him stop in his tracks.

"We may have a clue as to where he is, Kaiba," the small boy piped in.

"Yuugi don't, it's none of his business," his lover, Yami said.

"It's all of my business," Kaiba said, turning around again, "now tell me what you know."

"And why exactly is it your business, Kaiba?" Honda said, staring straight into the cerulean eyes, "you got a crush on Jou or somethin'?"

The question caught Kaiba so off guard that he could not do anything else but blush.

"Oh look, the rich boy is turning beet-red. I guess I'm on to something here," Honda taunted him, "You wanna hug Jou, Kaiba? You wanna kiss him?"

Kaiba balled his hand into a fist, but before he could punch Kaiba in the face, Yami had appeared behind him, holding him back.

"You don't know shit, Hiroto," Kaiba said, his words drenched with anger.

"I think I'm hitting rather close to home, actually," Honda said, rather smug with himself.

"Kaiba if you don't calm down, we won't tell you what we know," Yami said, grinding his teeth from the effort of holding the brunet back.

It took Kaiba all his will to calm down then and there, but not without making a mental note to punch Honda later. He clenched his teeth visibly, his eyes still dangerous. Yami let go of him, but still stood besides Kaiba, as to make sure the larger boy would not decide to fulfill his little promise to Honda right now.

Honda was still standing up, ready to fight. Anzu however, just pulled him back down in his seat.

"What do you know?" Kaiba said, still angry.

"All we know is that Anzu got a phone call from him this morning," Yuugi said.

"He just asked me for someone's phone number, that's all," Anzu said.

"Who's phone number?" Kaiba inquired.

"The guy who brought us to Domino Island in his little boat," Anzu said, "but there's no way he went back there, I mean, why would he?"

Kaiba just frowned and turned around again, he headed back to his own table and gathered his own stuff. Yuugi was yelling after him as he strode out of the cafeteria and pulled out his cell phone to call his driver.

His heart was pounding as Kaiba approach the school gate though he had no idea why. Was it something that Hiroto-character had said? Of course not, he did not feel that way towards Jounouchi. That was ridiculous. But then why was his heart beating this fast? Why did his hands feel clammy? _Was there something Hiroto noticed that I cannot?_ He wondered. He then cursed aloud and forced himself to dispel these crazy thoughts. He did not think about Jounouchi that way. He did not. _Or do I?_

Domino Island is where it had all begun, Kaiba knew, Jounouchi had told him. It's where he first saw the man that Jounouchi claimed was the cause of his father's death. Would he honestly be going back there? What would he hope to achieve? Kaiba mulled these questions over in his head as he ordered his driver to head for Domino Island.

Jounouchi and Kaiba weren't the only one that headed over to Domino Island. Kimura decided to check out the island one last time before he started question his suspects again. All he had done in this investigation had been to no avail. He had no killer, he had no other witnesses except for Jounouchi, and even though there were enough people with a grudge against the elder Jounouchi, none of them seemed likely to have done it. Except for Jounouchi Katsuya, he seemed to be somehow involved everywhere, yet he couldn't figure out why. Somehow Kimura could not believe Jounouchi was the murderer, but at the end of the day, if he didn't come up with another liable suspect, Jounouchi was likely to be the one to pay the price.

He arrived at the lake around noon, the other police officers already standing by with the boat. They gave each other a quick hello. He looked around and saw no one but an old man and his boat. Kimura headed over to the man, and waved his hand as a sign of greeting. The man stepped out of the boat, and waved back.

"What brings you here, officer?" the man asked.

"We have some business to take care of at the island," Kimura answered, "I just wanted to let you know that you are not allowed to bring anyone else to the island."

"Well, you are too late with that order, officer," the man said, chuckling, "Why I just brought someone over to the island this morning."

"What? Who?" Kimura asked.

"I cannot say this, officer," the man said, "but he was very determined to get there."

Kimura returned to the boat with a sour look on his face. This wasn't going according to plan. He just hoped that, whoever was on the island, wouldn't get in his way.

Right before he told his team to start the boat the ringtone of his cell phone rung through the air. Kimura sighed and picked up the phone.

"Kimura speaking," he said.

"Kimura, we just got some news in from another district," his supervisor said, "it seems the Jounouchi kid's mother has been killed as well."

Kimura's eyes widened, "are there any suspects?"

"The mother was well liked, and there aren't any witnesses. We need you to bring in Jounouchi Katsuya back to the island, right away!"

"Why Jounouchi Katsuya?" Kimura asked, "there's no way he could have killed his mother."

"He's the only lead we have, Kimura," his supervisor said, before he hung up the phone.

Kimura put his cell phone back into his pocket, but right before he wanted to blow off the entire search he heard a familiar chuckle behind him. He turned around and saw the old man looking at him, a smile playing around his lips.

"What is it?" Kimura said, clearly losing patience.

"Why, Jounouchi Katsuya," the old man said, "that's exactly the name of the boy I brought to the island this morning."

Kimura looked out to the island, and smiled a little: "looks like the search is back on."

**A/N:** IT'S BEEN FOREVER. I am sorry. I lost this chapter somewhere and I haven't been bothered to re-write it because I've been so busy. BUT THEN I FOUND IT AGAIN. Yay!

**I hope you enjoyed it!** **Remember to review. c:**


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